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JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 



BY 



JOHN T. MOESE, JR. 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 



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Copyright, 1882 and 1898, 
By JOHN T. MORSE, JR. 

Copyright, 1898, 
By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN «& CO. 

All rights reserved. 



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PREFACE 

Nearly sixteen years have elapsed since this 
book was written. In that time sundry inaccu- 
racies have been called to my attention, and 
have been corrected, and it may be fairly hoped 
that after the lapse of so long a period all errors 
in matters of fact have been eliminated. I am 
not aware that any fresh material has been 
made public, or that any new views have been 
presented which would properly lead to altera- 
tions in the substance of what is herein said. 
If I were now writing the book for the first 
time, I should do what so many of the later con- 
tributors to the series have very wisely and 
advantageously done : I should demand more 
space. But this was the first volume published, 
and at a time when the enterprise was still an 
experiment insistence upon such a point, espe- 
cially on the part of the editor, would have been 
unreasonable. Thus it happens that, though 
Mr. Adams was appointed minister resident at 
the Hague in 1794, and thereafter continued 
in public life, almost without interruption, until 



vi PREFACE 

his death in February, 1848, the narrative of 
his career is compressed within little more than 
three hundred pages. The proper function of 
a work upon this scale is to draw a picture of 
the man. 

With the picture which I have drawn of Mr. 
Adams, I still remain moderately contented — 
by which remark I mean nothing more egotisti- 
cal than that I believe it to be a correct picture, 
and done with whatever measure of skill I may 
happen to possess in portraiture. I should like 
to change it only in one particular, viz. : by in- 
fusing throughout the volume somewhat more 
of admiration. Adams has never received the 
praise which was his due, and probably he never 
will receive it. In order that justice should be 
done him by the public, his biographer ought 
to speak somewhat better of him than his real 
deserts would require. He presents one of those 
cases where exaggeration is the servant of truth ; 
for this moderate excess of appreciation would 
only offset that discount from an accurate esti- 
mate which his personal unpopularity always has 
caused, and probably always will cause, to be 
made. He was a good instance of the rule that 
the world will for the most part treat the individ- 
ual as the individual treats the world. Adams 
was censorious, not to say uncharitable in the 



PREFACE vu 

extreme, always in an attitude of antagonism, 
always unsparing and denunciatory. The mea- 
sure which he meted has been by others in their 
turn meted to him. This habit of ungracious 
criticism was his great fault ; perhaps it was 
almost his only very serious fault ; it cost him 
dear in his life, and has continued to cost his 
memory dear since his death. Sometimes we 
are not sorry to see men get the punishments 
which they have brought on themselves ; yet we 
ought to be sorry for Mr. Adams. After all, 
his fault-finding was in part the result of his 
respect for virtue and his hatred of all that was 
ignoble and unworthy. If he despised a low 
standard, at least he held his own standard 
high, and himself lived by the rules by which 
he measured others. Men with vastly greater 
defects have been much more kindly served both 
by contemporaries and by posterity. There can 
be no question that Adams deserved all the 
esteem which ought to be accorded to the high- 
est moral qualities, to very high, if a little short 
of the highest, intellectual endowment, and to 
immense acquirements. His political integrity 
was of a grade rarely seen ; and, in unison with 
his extraordinary courage and independence, it 
seemed to the average politician actually irritat- 
ing and offensive. He was in the same difficulty 



viii PREFACE 

in which Aristides the Just found himself. But 
neither assaults nor political solitude daunted or 
discouraged him. His career in the House of 
Kepresentatives is a tale which has not a rival 
in congressional history. I regret that it could 
not be told here at greater length. Stubbornly- 
fighting for freedom of speech and against the 
slaveholders, fierce and unwearied in old age, 
falling literally out of the midst of the conflict 
into his grave, Mr. Adams, during the closing 
years of his life, is one of the most striking 
figures of modern times. I beg the reader of 
this volume to put into its pages more warmth 
of praise than he will find therein, and so do 
a more correct justice to an honest statesman 
and a gallant friend of the oppressed. Doing 
this, he will improve my book in the particular 
wherein I think that it chiefly needs improve- 
ment. 

JOHN T. MORSE, JR. 
July, 1898. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I. 

FAGB 

Youth and Diplomacy 1 

CHAPTER II. 
Secretary of State and President . . . 101 

CHAPTER III. 
In the House of Representatives » . . . 225 

Index o 309 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 



CHAPTER I 

YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 

On July 11, 1767, in the North Parish of 
Braintree, since set off as the town of Quincy, 
in Massachusetts, was born John Quincy Adams. 
Two streams of as good blood as flowed in the 
colony mingled in the veins of the infant. If 
heredity counts for anything he began life with 
an excellent chance of becoming famous — non 
sine dts animosus infans. He was called after 
his great-grandfather on the mother's side, John 
Quincy, a man of local note who had borne in 
his day a distinguished part in provincial affairs. 
Such a naming was a simple and natural occur- 
rence enough, but Mr. Adams afterward moral- 
ized upon it in his characteristic way : — 

" The incident which gave rise to this circumstance 
is not without its moral to my heart. He was dying 
when I was baptized ; and his daughter, my grand- 
mother, present at my birth, requested that I might 



2 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

receive his name. The fact, recorded by my father 
at the time, has connected with that portion of my 
name a charm of mingled sensibility and devotion. 
It was fihal tenderness that gave the name. It was 
the name of one passing from earth to immortality. 
These have been among the strongest links of my 
attachment to the name of Quincy, and have been to 
me through life a perpetual admonition to do nothing 
unworthy of it." 

Fate, which had made such good preparation 
for him before his birth, was not less kind in 
arranging the circumstances of his early train- 
ing and development. His father was deeply 
engaged in the patriot cause, and the first 
matters borne in upon his opening intelligence 
concerned the public discontent and resistance 
to tyranny. He was but seven years old when 
he clambered with his mother to the top of one 
of the high hills in the neighborhood of his 
home to listen to the sounds of conflict upon 
Bunker's Hill, and to watch the flaming ruin 
of Charlestown. Profound was the impression 
made upon him by the spectacle, and it was 
intensified by many an hour spent afterward 
upon the same spot during the siege and bom- 
bardment of Boston. Then John Adams went 
as a delegate to the Continental Congress at 
Philadelphia, and his wife and children were 
left for twelve months, as John Quincy Adams 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 3 

says, — it is to be hoped with a little exaggera- 
tion of the barbarity of British troops toward 
women and babes, — " liable every hour of the 
day and of the night to be butchered in cold 
blood, or taken and carried into Boston as hos- 
tages, by any foraging or marauding detach- 
ment." Later, when the British had evacu- 
ated Boston, the boy, barely nine years old, 
became " post-rider " between the city and the 
farm, a distance of eleven miles each way, in 
order to bring all the latest news to his mother. 
Not much regular schooling was to be got 
amid such surroundings of times and events, 
but the lad had a natural aptitude or affinity for 
knowledge which stood him in better stead than 
could any dame of a village school. The follow- 
ing letter to his father is worth preserving : — 

Braintree, June the 2d, 1777. 
Dear Sir, — I love to receive letters very well, 
much better than I love to write them. I make but 
a poor figure at composition, my head is much too 
fickle, my thoughts are running after birds' eggs, play 
and trifles till I get vexed with myself. I have but 
just entered the 3d volume of Smollett, tlio' I had 
designed to have got it half through by this time. I 
have determined this week to be more diligent, as 
Mr. Thaxter will be absent at Court and I Cannot 
pursue my other Studies. I have Set myself a Stent 
and determine to read the 3d volume Half out. If 



4 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

I can but keep my resolution I will write again at tlie 
end of the week and give a better account of myself. 
I wish, Sir, you would give me some instructions 
with regard to my time, and advise me how to pro- 
portion my Studies and my Play, in writing, and I 
will keep them by me and endeavor to follow them, 
I am, dear Sir, with a present determination of grow- 
ing better. Yours. 

P. S. Sir, if you will be so good as to favor me 
with a Blank book, I will transcribe the most re- 
markable occurrences I mett with in my reading, 
which will serve to fix them upon my mind. 

Not long after the writing of this model 
epistle, the simple village life was interrupted 
by an unexpected change. John Adams was 
sent on a diplomatic journey to Paris, and on 
February 13, 1778, embarked in the frigate 
Boston. John Quincy Adams, then eleven 
years old, accompanied his father and thus made 
his first acquaintance with the foreign lands 
where so many of his coming years were to be 
passed. This initial visit, however, was brief; 
and he was hardly well established at school 
when events caused his father to start for home. 
Unfortunately this return trip was a needless 
loss of time, since within three months of their 
setting foot upon American shores the two 
travellers were again on their stormy way back 
across the Atlantic in a leaky ship, which had 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 5 

to land them at the nearest port in Spain. One 
more quotation must be given from a letter writ- 
ten just after the first arrival in France : — 

Passy, September the 21th, 1778. 

Honored Mamma, — My Pappa enjoins it upon 
me to keep a Journal, or a Diary of the Events that 
happen to me, and of objects that I see, and of 
Characters that I converse with from day to day; 
and altho' I am Convinced of the utility, importance 
and necessity of this Exercise, yet I have not patience 
and perseverance enough to do it so Constantly as I 
ought. My Pappa, who takes a great deal of pains 
to put me in the right way, has also advised me to 
Preserve Copies of all my letters, and has given me 
a Convenient Blank Book for this end ; and altho' I 
shall have the mortification a few years hence to read 
a great deal of my Childish nonsense, yet I shall have 
the Pleasure and advantage of Remarking the sev- 
eral steps by which I shall have advanced in taste, 
judgment and knowledge. A Journal Book and a 
letter Book of a Lad of Eleven years old Can not be 
expected to Contain much of Science, Literature, 
arts, wisdom, or wit, yet it may serve to perpetuate 
many observations that I may make, and may here- 
after help me to recollect both persons and things 
that would other ways escape my memory. 

He continues with resolutions "to be more 
thoughtful and industrious for the future," and 
reflects with pleasure upon the prospect that 



6 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

his scheme " will be a sure means of improve- 
ment to myself, and enable me to be more en- 
tertaining to you." What gratification must 
this letter from one who was quite justified in 
signing himself her " dutiful and affectionate 
son " have brought to the Puritan bosom of the 
good mother at home ! If the plan for the diary 
was not pursued during the first short flitting 
abroad, it can hardly be laid at the door of the 
"lad of eleven years" as a serious fault. He 
did in fact begin it when setting out on the 
aforementioned second trip to Europe, calling it 

A Journal by J. Q. A., 

From America to Spain, 

Vol. I. 

Begun Friday, 12 of November, 1779. 

The spark of life in the great undertaking 
flickered in a somewhat feeble and irregular 
way for many years thereafter, but apparently 
gained strength by degrees until in 1795, as 
Mr. C. F. Adams tells us, " what may be de- 
nominated the diary proper begins," a very 
vigorous work in more senses than one. Con- 
tinued with astonishing persistency and faith- 
fulness until within a few days of the writer's 
death, the latest entry is of the 4th of January, 
1848. Mr. Adams achieved many successes 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 7 

during his life as the result of conscious effort, 
but the greatest success of all he achieved al- 
together unconsciously. He left a portrait of 
himself more full, correct, vivid, and picturesque 
than has ever been bequeathed to posterity by 
any other personage of the past ages. Any 
mistakes which may be made in estimating his 
mental or moral attributes must be charged to 
the dulness or prejudice of the judge, who 
could certainly not ask for better or more 
abundant evidence. Few of us know our most 
intimate friends better than any of us may 
know Mr. Adams, if we will but take the 
trouble. Even the brief extracts already given 
from his correspondence show us the boy; it 
only concerns us to get them into the proper 
light for seeing them accurately. If a lad of 
seven, nine, or eleven years of age should write 
such solemn little effusions amid the surround- 
ings and influences of the present day, he would 
probably be set down justly enough as either 
an offensive young prig or a prematurely de- 
veloped hypocrite. But the precocious Adams 
had only a little of the prig and nothing of 
the hypocrite in his nature. Being the out- 
come of many generations of simple, devout, 
intelligent Puritan ancestors, living in a com- 
munity which loved virtue and sought know- 
ledge, all inherited and all present influences 



8 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

combined to make him, as it may be put in a 
single word, sensible. He had inevitably a 
mental boyhood and youth, but morally he was 
never either a child or a lad ; all his leading 
traits of character were as strongly marked 
when he was seven as when he was seventy, 
and at an age when most young people simply 
win love or cause annoyance, he was preferring 
wisdom to mischief, and actually in his earliest 
years was attracting a certain respect. 

These few but bold and striking touches 
which paint the boy are changed for an infi- 
nitely more elaborate and complex presentation 
from the time when the Diary begins. Even 
as abridged in the printing, this immense work 
ranks among the half-dozen longest diaries to 
be found in any library, and it is unquestion- 
ably by far the most valuable. Henceforth we 
are to travel along its broad route to the end ; 
we shall see in it both the great and the small 
among public men halting onward in a way 
very different from that in which they march 
along the stately pages of the historian, and we 
shall find many side-lights, by no means color- 
less, thrown upon the persons and events of the 
procession. The persistence, fulness, and faith- 
fulness with which it was kept throughout so 
busy a life are marvellous, but are also highly 
characteristic of the most persevering and in< 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 9 

dustrious of men. That it has been preserved 
is cause not only for thankfulness but for some 
surprise also. For if its contents had been 
known, it is certain that all the public men of 
nearly two generations who figure in it would 
have combined into one vast and irresistible 
conspiracy to obtain and destroy it. There was 
always a superfluity of gall in the diarist's ink. 
Sooner or later every man of any note in the 
United States was mentioned in his pages, and 
there is scarcely one of them, who, if he could 
have read what was said of him, would not have 
preferred the ignominy of omission. As one 
turns the leaves he feels as though he were walk- 
ing through a graveyard of slaughtered reputa- 
tions wherein not many headstones show a few 
words of measured commendation. It is only 
the greatness and goodness of Mr. Adams him- 
self which relieve the universal atmosphere of 
sadness far more depressing than the melan- 
choly which pervades the novels of George Eliot. 
The reader who wishes to retain any comfort- 
able degree of belief in his fellow men will turn 
to the wall all the portraits in the gallery except 
only the inimitable one of the writer himself. 
For it would be altogether too discouraging to 
think that so wide an experience of men as Mr. 
Adams enjoyed through his long, varied, and 
active life must lead to such an unpleasant ar- 



10 JOHN QUmCY ADAMS 

ray of human faces as those which are scattered 
along these twelve big octavos. Fortunately at 
present we have to do with only one of these 
likenesses, and that one we are able to admire 
while knowing also that it is beyond question 
accurate. One after another every trait of Mr. 
Adams comes out ; we shall see that he was a 
man of a very high and noble character veined 
with some very notable and disagreeable blem- 
ishes ; his aspirations were honorable, even the 
lowest of them being more than simply respect- 
able ; he had an avowed ambition, but it was of 
that pure kind which led him to render true 
and distinguished services to his countrymen; 
he was not only a zealous patriot, but a profound 
believer in the sound and practicable tenets of 
the liberal political creed of the United States ; 
he had one of the most honest and independent 
natures that was ever given to man; personal 
integrity of course goes without saying, but he 
had the rarer gift of an elevated and rigid polit- 
ical honesty such as has been unfrequently seen 
in any age or any nation ; in times of severe 
trial this quality was even cruelly tested, but we 
shall never see it fail ; he was as courageous as 
if he had been a fanatic ; indeed, for a long part 
of his life to maintain a single-handed fight in 
support of a despised or unpopular opinion 
seemed his natural function and almost exclu- 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 11 

sive calling ; he was thoroughly conscientious and 
never knowingly did wrong, nor even sought to 
persuade himself that wrong was right; well 
read in literature and of wide and varied infor- 
mation in nearly all matters of knowledge, he 
was more especially remarkable for his acquire- 
ments in the domain of politics, where indeed 
they were vast and ever growing ; he had a clear 
and generally a cool head, and was nearly al- 
ways able to do full justice to himself and to 
his cause ; he had an indomitable will, uncon- 
querable persistence, and infinite laboriousness. 
Such were the qualities which made him a great 
statesman ; but unfortunately we must behold 
a hardly less striking reverse to the picture, in 
the faults and shortcomings which made him so 
unpopular in his lifetime that posterity is only 
just beginning to forget the prejudices of his 
contemporaries and to render concerning him 
the judgment which he deserves. Never did a 
man of pure life and just purposes have fewer 
friends or more enemies than John Quincy 
Adams. His nature,, said to have been very 
affectionate in his family relations, was in its 
aspect outside of that small circle singularly 
cold and repellent. If he could ever have gath- 
ered even a small personal following his char- 
acter and abilities would have insured him a 
brilliant and prolonged success ; but, for a man 



12 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

of his calibre and influence, we shall see him 
as one of the most lonely and desolate of the 
great men of history; instinct led the public 
men of his time to range themselves against 
him rather than with him, and we shall find 
them fighting beside him only when irresistibly 
compelled to do so by policy or strong convic- 
tions. As he had little sympathy with those 
with whom he was brought in contact, so he 
was very uncharitable in his judgment of them ; 
and thus having really a low opinion of so many 
of them he could indulge his vindictive rancor 
without stint ; his invective, always powerful, 
will sometimes startle us by its venom, and we 
shall be pained to see him apt to make enemies 
for a good cause by making them for himself. 

This has been, perhaps, too long a lingering 
upon the threshold. But Mr. Adams's career 
in public life stretched over so long a period 
that to write a full historical memoir of him 
within the limited space of this volume is im- 
possible. All that can be attempted is to pre- 
sent a sketch of the man with a few of his more 
prominent surroundings against a very meagre 
and insufficient background of the history of 
the times. So it may be permissible to begin 
with a general outline of his figure, to be filled 
in, shaded, and colored as we proceed. At best 
our task is much more difficult of satisfactory 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 13 

achievement than an historical biography of the 
customary elaborate order. 

During his second visit to Europe, our mature 
youngster — if the word may be used of Mr. 
Adams even in his earliest years — began to 
see a good deal of the world and to mingle in 
very distinguished society. For a brief period 
he got a little schooling, first at Paris, next at 
Amsterdam, and then at Leyden ; altogether 
the- amount was insignificant, since he was not 
quite fourteen years old when he actually found 
himself engaged in a diplomatic career. Francis 
Dana, afterward Chief Justice of Massachusetts, 
was then accredited as an envoy to Russia from 
the United States, and he took Mr. Adams with 
him as his private secretary. Not much came 
of the mission, but it was a valuable experience 
for a lad of his years. Upon his return he 
spent six months in travel and then he rejoined 
his father in Paris, where that gentleman was 
engaged with Franklin and John Jay in nego- 
tiating the final treaty of peace between the 
revolted colonies and the mother country. The 
boy " was at once enlisted in the service as 
an additional secretary, and gave his help to 
the preparation of the papers necessary to the 
completion of that instrument which dispersed 
all possible doubt of the Independence of his 
Country." 



14 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

On April 26, 1785, arrived tlie packet-ship 
Le Courier de L'Orient, bringing a letter from 
Mr. Gerry containing news of the appointment 
of John Adams as Minister to St. James's. This 
unforeseen occurrence made it necessary for the 
younger Adams to determine his own career, 
which apparently he was left to do for himself. 
He was indeed a singular young man, not un- 
worthy of such confidence ! The glimpses which 
we get of him during this stay abroad show him 
as the associate upon terms of equality with 
grown men of marked ability and exercising 
important functions. He preferred diplomacy 
to dissipation, statesmen to mistresses, and in 
the midst of all the temptations of the gayest 
capital in the world, the chariness with which 
he sprinkled his wild oats amid the alluring 
gardens chiefly devoted to the culture of those 
cereals might well have brought a blush to the 
cheeks of some among his elders, at least if the 
tongue of slander wags not with gross untruth 
concerning the colleagues of John Adams. But 
he was not in Europe to amuse himself, though 
at an age when amusement is natural and a 
tinge of sinfulness is so often pardoned ; he was 
there with the definite and persistent purpose 
of steady improvement and acquisition. At his 
age most young men play the cards which a 
kind fortune puts into their hands, with the 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 15 

reckless intent only of immediate gain, but 
from the earliest moment when he began the 
game of life Adams coolly and wisely husbanded 
every card which came into his hand, with a 
steady view to probable future contingencies, 
and with the resolve to win in the long run. 
So now the resolution which he took in the 
present question illustrated the clearness of 
his mind and the strength of his character. 
To go with his father to England would be to 
enjoy a life precisely fitted to his natural and 
acquired tastes, to mingle with the men who 
were making history, to be cognizant of the 
weightiest of public affairs, to profit by all that 
the grandest city in the world had to show. It 
was easy to be not only allured by the pro- 
spect but also to be deceived by its apparent 
advantages. Adams, however, had the sense 
and courage to turn his back on it, and to go 
home to the meagre shores and small society of 
New England, there to become a boy again, to 
enter Harvard College, and come under all its at 
that time rigid and petty regulations. It almost 
seems a mistake, but it was not. Already he 
was too ripe and too wise to blunder. He him- 
self gives us his characteristic and sufficient 
reasons : — 

" Were I now to go with my father probably my 
immediate satisfaction might be greater than it will 



16 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

be in returning to America. After having been 
travelling for these seven years almost and all over 
Europe, and having been in the world and among 
company for three ; to return to spend one or two 
years in the pale of a college, subjected to all the 
rules which I have so long been freed from ; and 
afterwards not expect (however good an opinion I 
may have of myself) to bring myself into notice 
under three or four years more, if ever ! It is really 
a prospect somewhat discouraging for a youth of my 
ambition, (for I have ambition though I hope its ob- 
ject is laudable). But still 

' Oh ! how -wTetched 
Is that poor man, that hangs on Princes' favors,' 

or on those of any body else. I am determined that 
so long as I shall be able to get my own living in an 
honorable manner, I will depend upon no one. My 
father has been so much taken up all his lifetime 
with the interests of the public, that his own fortune 
has suffered by it : so that his children will have to 
provide for themselves, which I shall never be able 
to do if I loiter away my precious time in Europe 
and shun going home until I am forced to it. With 
an ordinary share of common sense, which I hope I 
enjoy, at least in America I can live independent and 
free ; and rather than live otherwise I would wish to 
die before the time when I shall be left at my own 
discretion. I have before me a striking example of 
the distressing and humiliating situation a person is 
reduced to by adojDting a different line of conduct, 
and I am determined not to fall into the same error." 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 17 

It is needless to comment upon such spirit 
and sense, or upon such just appreciation of 
what was feasible, wise, and right for him, as 
a New Englander whose surroundings and pro- 
spects were widely different from those of the 
society about him. He must have been strongly 
imbued by nature with the instincts of his birth- 
place to have formed, after a seven years' ab- 
sence at his impressible age, so correct a judg- 
ment of the necessities and possibilities of his 
own career in relationship to the people and 
ideas of his own country. 

Home accordingly he came, and by assiduity 
prepared himself in a very short time to enter 
the junior class at Harvard College, whence 
he was graduated in high standing in 1787. 
From there he went to Newburyport, then a 
thriving and active seaport enriched by the 
noble trade of privateering in addition to more 
regular maritime business, and entered as a law 
student the office of Theophilus Parsons, after- 
wards the Chief Justice of Massachusetts. On 
July 15, 1790, being twenty-three years old, he 
was admitted to practice. Immediately after- 
ward he established himself in Boston, where 
for a time he felt strangely solitary. Clients of 
course did not besiege his doors in the first year, 
and he appears to have waited rather stubbornly 
than cheerfully for more active days. These 



18 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

came in good time, and during the second, third, 
and fourth years, his business grew apace to en- 
couraging dimensions. 

He was, however, doing other work than that 
of the law, and much more important in its 
bearing uj^on his future career. He could not 
keep his thoughts, nor indeed his hands, from 
public affairs. When, in 1791, Thomas Paine 
produced the " Rights of Man," Thomas Jeffer- 
son acting as midwife to usher the bantling 
before the people of the United States, Adams's 
indignation was fired, and he published anony- 
mously a series of refuting papers over the sig- 
nature of Publicola. These attracted much 
attention, not only at home but also abroad, 
and were by many attributed to John Adams. 
Two years later, during the excitement aroused 
by the reception and subsequent outrageous 
behavior here of the French minister. Genet, 
Mr. Adams again published in the Boston 
" Centinel " some papers over the signature of 
Marcellus, discussing with much ability the 
then new and perplexing question of the neu- 
trality which should be observed by this coun- 
try in European wars. These were followed 
by more, over the signature of Columbus, and 
afterward by still more in the name of Barne- 
velt, all strongly reprobating the course of the 
crazy-headed foreigner. The writer was not 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 19 

permitted to remain long unknown. It is not 
certain, but it is highly probable, that to these 
articles was due the nomination which Mr. 
Adams received shortly afterward from Presi- 
dent Washington, as Minister Resident at the 
Hague. This nomination was sent in to the 
Senate, May 29, 1794, and was unanimously 
confirmed on the following day. It may be 
imagined that the change from the moderate 
practice of his Boston law office to a European 
court, of which he so well knew the charms, 
was not distasteful to him. There are pas- 
sages in his Diary which indicate that he had 
been chafing with irrepressible impatience " in 
that state of useless and disgraceful insignifi- 
cancy," to which, as it seemed to him, he was 
relegated, so that at the age of twenty-five, when 
" many of the characters who were born for the 
benefit of their fellow creatures, have rendered 
themselves conspicuous among their contempo- 
raries, ... I still find myself as obscure, as un- 
known to the world, as the most indolent or the 
most stupid of human beings." Entertaining 
such a restless ambition, he of course accepted 
the proffered office, though not without some 
expression of unexplained doubt. October 31, 
1791, found him at the Hague, after a voyage 
of considerable peril in a leaky ship, commanded 
by a blundering captain. He was a young dip- 



20 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

lomat, indeed ; it was on his twenty-seventh 
birthday that he received his commission. 

The minister made his advent upon a tu- 
multuous scene. All Europe was getting under 
arms in the long and desperate struggle with 
France. Scarcely had he presented his cre- 
dentials to the Stadtholder ere that dignitary 
was obliged to flee before the conquering stand- 
ards of the French. Pichegru marched into 
the capital city of the Low Countries, hung 
out the tri-color, and established the " Batavian 
Republic " as the ally of France. The diplo- 
matic representatives of most of the European 
powers forthwith left, and Mr. Adams was 
strongly moved to do the same, though for 
reasons different from those which actuated 
his compeers. He was not, like them, placed 
in an unpleasant position by the new condition 
of affairs, but on the contrary he was very cor- 
dially treated by the French and their Dutch 
partisans, and was obliged to fall back upon his 
native prudence to resist their compromising 
overtures and dangerous friendship. Without 
giving offence he yet kept clear of entangle- 
ments, and showed a degree of wisdom and 
skill which many older and more experienced 
Americans failed to evince, either abroad or 
at home, during these exciting years. But he 
appeared to be left without occupation in the 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 21 

altered condition of affairs, and therefore was 
considering the propriety of returning, when ad- 
vices from home induced him to stay. Wash- 
ington especially wrote that he must not think 
of retiring, and prophesied that he would soon 
be " found at the head of the diplomatic corps, 
be the government administered by whomsoever 
the people may choose." He remained, there- 
fore, at the Hague, a shrewd and close observer 
of the exciting events occurring around him, 
industriously pursuing an extensive course of 
study and reading, making useful acquaint- 
ances, acquiring familiarity with foreign lan- 
guages, with the usages of diplomacy and the 
habits of distinguished society. He had little 
public business to transact, it is true ; but at 
least his time was well spent for his own im- 
provement. 

An episode in his life at the Hague was his 
visit to England, where he was directed to ex- 
change ratifications of the treaty lately nego- 
tiated by Mr. Jay. But a series of vexatious 
delays, apparently maliciously contrived, de- 
tained him so long that upon his arrival he 
found this specific task already accomplished 
by Mr. Deas. He was probably not disap- 
pointed that his name thus escaped connection 
with engagements so odious to a large part of 
the nation. He had, however, some further 



«/ 




22 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

business of an informal character to transact 
witli Lord Grenville, and in endeavoring to 
conduct it found himself rather awkwardly 
placed. He was not minister to the Court of 
St. James, having been only vaguely authorized 
to discuss certain arrangements in a tentative 
way, without the power to enter into any de- 
finitive agreement. But the English Cabinet 
strongly disliking Mr. Dea^, who in the ab- 
sence of Mr, Pinckney represented for the 
time the United States, and much preferring 
to negotiate with Mr. Adams, sought by many 
indirect and artful subterfuges to thrust upon 
him the character of a regularly accredited 
minister. He had much ado to avoid, without 
offence, the assumption of functions to which 
he had no title, but which were with designing 
courtesy forced upon him. His cool and mod- 
erate temper, however, carried him successfully 
through the whole business, alike in its social 
and its diplomatic aspect. 

Another negotiation, of a private nature also, 
he brought to a successful issue during these few 
months in London. He made the acquaintance 
of Miss Louisa Catherine Johnson, daughter 
of Joshua Johnson, then American Consul at 
London, and niece of that Governor Johnson, of 
Maryland, who had signed the Declaration of 
Independence and was afterwards placed on 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 23 

the bench of the Supreme Court of the United 
States. To this lady he became engaged ; and 
returning not long afterward he was married 
to her on July 26, 1797. It was a thoroughly 
happy and, for him, a life-long union. 

President Washington, toward the close o£ 
his second term, transferred Mr. Adams to the 
Court of Portugal. But before his departure 
thither his destination was changed. Some de- 
gree of embarrassment was felt about this time 
concerning his further continuance in public 
office, by reason of his father's accession to the 
Presidency. He wrote to his mother a manly 
and spirited letter, rebuking her for carelessly 
dropping an expression indicative of a fear that 
he might look for some favor at his father's 
hands. He could neither solicit nor expect any- 
thing, he justly said, and he was pained that 
his mother should not know him better than to 
entertain any apprehension of his feeling other- 
wise. It was a perplexing position in which 
the two were placed. It would be a great hard- 
ship to cut short the son's career because of the 
success of the father, yet the reproach of nepo- 
tism could not be lightly encountered, even with 
the backing of clear consciences. Washington 
came kindly to the aid of his doubting suc- 
cessor, and in a letter highly complimentary to 
Mr. John Quincy Adams strongly urgied that 



24 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

well-merited promotion ought not to be kept 
from him, foretelling for him a distinguished 
future in the diplomatic service. These rej^re- 
sentations prevailed ; and the President's only 
action as concerned his son consisted in chan- 
ging his destination from Portugal to Prussia, 
both missions being at that time of the same 
grade, though that to Prussia was then estab- 
lished for the first time by the making and con- 
firming of this nomination. 

To Berlin, accordingly, Mr. Adams proceeded 
in November, 1797, and had the somewhat cruel 
experience of being "questioned at the gates 
by a dapper lieutenant, who did not know, until 
one of his private soldiers explained to him, who 
the United States of America were." Overcom- 
ing this unusual obstacle to a ministerial ad- 
vent, and succeeding, after many months, in get- 
ting through all the introductory formalities, he 
found not much more to be done at Berlin than 
there had been at the Hague. But such useful 
work as was open to him he accomplished in the 
shape of a treaty of amity and commerce be- 
tween Prussia and the United States. This 
having been duly ratified by both the powers, 
his further stay seemed so useless that he wrote 
home suggesting his readiness to return ; and 
while awaiting a reply he travelled through some 
portions of Europe which he had not before 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 25 

seen. His recall was one of the last acts of his 
father's administration, made, says Mr. Seward, 
'*that Mr. Jefferson might have no embarrass- 
ment in that direction," but quite as probably 
dictated by a vindictive desire to show how wide 
was the gulf of animosity which had opened be<= 
tween the family of the disappointed ex-Presi- 
dent and his triumphant rival. 

Mr. Adams, immediately upon his arrival at 
home, prepared to return to the practice of his 
profession. It was not altogether an agreeable 
transition from an embassy at the courts of Eu- 
rope to a law office in Boston, with the neces- 
sity of furbishing up long disused knowledge, 
and a second time patiently awaiting the influx 
of clients. But he faced it with his stubborn 
temper and practical sense. The slender pro- 
mise which he was able to discern in the political 
outlook could not fail to disappoint him, since 
his native predilections were unquestionably and 
strongly in favor of a public career. During 
his absence party animosities had been develop- 
ing rapidly. The first great party victory since 
the organization of the government had just 
been won, after a very bitter struggle, by the Re- 
publicans or Democrats, as they were then in- 
differently called, whose exuberant delight found 
its full counterj^art in the angry desj)ondency 
of the Federalists. That irascible old gentle^ 



26 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

man, the elder Adams, having experienced a 
very Waterloo defeat in the contest for the Pres- 
idency, had ridden away from the capital, actu- 
ally in a wild rage, on the night of the 3d of 
March, 1801, to avoid the humiliating pageant 
of Mr. Jefferson's inauguration. Yet far more 
fierce than this natural party warfare was the 
internal dissension which rent the Federal party 
in twain. Those cracks upon the surface and 
subterraneous rumblings, which the experienced 
observer could for some time have noted, had 
opened with terrible uproar into a gaping 
chasm, when John Adams, still in the Presi- 
dency, suddenly announced his determination to 
send a mission to France at a crisis when nearly 
all his party were looking for war. Perhaps 
this step was, as his admirers claim, an act 
of pure and disinterested statesmanship. Cer- 
tainly its result was fortunate for the country 
at large. But for John Adams it was ruinous. 
At the moment when he made the bold move, 
he doubtless expected to be followed by his 
party. Extreme was his disappointment and 
boundless his wrath, when he found that he had 
at his back only a fraction, not improbably less 
than half, of that party. He learned with in- 
finite chagrin that he had only a divided empire 
with a private individual ; that it was not safe 
for him, the President of the United States, to 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 27 

originate any important measure without first 
consulting a lawyer quietly engaged in the 
practice of his profession in New York ; that, 
in short, at least a moiety, in which were to be 
found the most intelligent members, of the great 
Federal party, when in search of guidance, 
turned their faces toward Alexander Hamil- 
ton rather than toward John Adams. These 
Hamiltonians by no means relished the French 
mission, so that from this time forth a schism of 
intense bitterness kept the Federal party asun- 
der, and John Adams hated Alexander Hamilton 
with a vigor not surpassed in the annals of 
human antipathies. His rage was not assuaged 
by the conduct of this dreaded foe in the presi- 
dential campaign ; and the defeated candidate 
always preferred to charge his failure to Ham- 
ilton's machinations rather than to the real will 
of the people. This, however, was unfair ; it 
was perfectly obvious that a majority of the 
nation had embraced Jeffersonian tenets, and 
that Federalism was moribund. 

To this condition of affairs John Quincy 
Adams returned. Fortunately he had beeq 
compelled to bear no part in the embroilments 
of the past, and his sagacity must have led him, 
while listening with filial sympathy to the inter- 
pretations placed upon events by his incensed 
parent, yet to make liberal allowance for the 



28 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

distorting effects of the old gentleman's rage. 
Still it was in the main only natural for him to 
regard himself as a Federalist of the Adams fac- 
tion. His proclivities had always been with that 
party. In Massachusetts the educated and well- 
to-do classes were almost unanimously of that 
way of thinking. The select coterie of gentle- 
men in the State, who in those times bore an 
active and influential part in politics, were nearly 
all Hamiltonians, but the adherents of President 
Adams were numerically strong. Nor was the 
younger Adams himself long left without his 
private grievance against Mr. Jefferson, who 
promptly used the authority vested in him by a 
new statute to remove Mr. Adams from the 
position of commissioner in bankruptcy, to which, 
at the time of his resuming business, he had been 
appointed by the judge of the district court. 
Long afterward Jefferson sought to escape the 
odium of this apparently malicious and, for those 
days, unusual action, by a very Jeffersonian 
explanation, tolerably satisfactory to those per- 
sons who believed it. 

On April 5, 1802, Mr. Adams was chosen by 
the Federalists of Boston to represent them in 
the State Senate. The office was at that time 
still sought by men of the best ability and 
position, and though it was hardly a step up- 
ward on the political ladder for one who had 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 29 

represented the nation in foreign parts for eight 
years, yet Mr. Adams was well content to accept 
it. At least it reopened the door of political 
life, and moreover one of his steadfast maxims 
was never to refuse any function which the 
people sought to impose upon him. It is worth 
noting, for its bearing upon controversies soon 
to be encountered in this narrative, that forty- 
eight hours had not elapsed after Mr. Adams 
had taken his seat before he ventured upon a 
display of independence which caused much 
irritation to his Federalist associates. He had 
the hardihood to propose that the Federalist 
majority in the legislature should permit the 
Republican minority to enjoy a proportional 
representation in the council. " It was the fii'st 
act of my legislative life," he wrote many years 
afterward, "and it marked the principle by 
which my whole public life has been governed 
from that day to this. My proposal was unsuc- 
cessful, and perhaps it forfeited whatever con- 
fidence might have been otherwise bestowed 
upon me as a party follower." Indeed, all his 
life long Mr. Adams was never submissive to 
the party whip, but voted upon every question 
precisely according to his opinion of its merits, 
without the slightest regard to the political 
company in which for the time being he might 
find himself. A compeer of his in the United 



30 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

States Senate once said of him, that he regarded 
every public measure which came up as he 
would a proposition in Euclid, abstracted from 
any party considerations. These frequent dere- 
lictions of his were at first forgiven with a 
magnanimity really very creditable, so long as 
it lasted, especially to the Hamiltonians in the 
Federal party ; and so liberal was this forbear- 
ance that when in February, 1803, the legislature 
had to elect a Senator to the United States 
Senate, he was chosen upon the fourth ballot by 
86 votes out of 171. This was the more gratify- 
ing to him and the more handsome on the part 
of the anti-Adams men in the party, because the 
place was eagerly sought by Timothy Pickering, 
an old man who had strong claims growing out 
of an almost life-long and very efficient service 
in their ranks, and who was moreover a most 
stanch adherent of General Hamilton. 

So in October, 1803, we find Mr. Adams on 
his way to Washington, the raw and unattrac- 
tive village which then constituted the national 
capital, wherein there was not, as the pious New 
Englander instantly noted, a church of any de- 
nomination ; but those who were religiously dis- 
posed were obliged to attend services '' usually 
performed on Sundays at the Treasury Office 
and at the Capitol." With what anticipations 
Mr. Adams's mind was filled during his journey 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 31 

to this embryotic city his Diary does not tell ; 
but if they were in any degree cheerful or san- 
guine they were destined to cruel disappoint- 
ment. He was now probably to appreciate for 
the first time the fierce vigor of the hostility 
which his father had excited. In Massachusetts 
social connections and friendships probably miti- 
gated the open display of rancor to which in 
Washington full sway was given. It was not 
only the Republican majority who showed feel- 
ings which in them were at least fair if they 
were strong, but the Federal minority were ma- 
liciously pleased to find in the son of the ill- 
starred John Adams a victim on whom to vent 
that spleen and abuse which were so provokingly 
ineffective against the solid working majority of 
their opponents in Congress. The Republicans 
trampled upon the Federalists, and the Federal- 
ists trampled on John Quincy Adams. He spoke 
seldom, and certainly did not weary the Sena- 
tors, 3^et whenever he rose to his feet he was sure 
of a cold, too often almost an insulting, recep- 
tion. By no chance or possibility could any- 
thing which he said or suggested please his pre- 
judiced auditors. The worst augury for any 
measure was his support ; any motion which he 
made was sure to be voted down, though not 
unfrequently substantially the same matter be- 
ing afterward moved by somebody else would 



32 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

be readily carried. That cordiality, assistance, 
and sense of fellowship which Senators from the 
same State customarily expect and obtain from 
each other could not be enjoyed by him. For 
shortly after his arrival in Washington, Mr. 
Pickering had been chosen to fill a vacancy 
in the other Massachusetts senatorship, and ap- 
peared upon the scene as a most unwelcome 
colleague. For a time, indeed, an outward sem- 
blance of political comradeship was maintained 
between them, but it would have been folly for 
an Adams to put faith in a Pickering, and per- 
haps vice versa. This position of his, as the 
unpopular member of an unpopular minority, 
could not be misunderstood, and many allusions 
to it occur in his Diary. One day he notes a 
motion rejected ; another day, that he has " no- 
thing to do but to make fruitless opposition ; " 
he constantly recites that he has voted with a 
small minority, and at least once he himself 
composed the whole of that minority ; soon after 
his arrival he says that an amendment proposed 
by him " will certainly not pass ; and, indeed, I 
have already seen enough to ascertain that no 
amendments of my proposing will obtain in the 
Senate as now filled ; " again, " I presented my 
three resolutions, which raised a storm as violent 
as I expected ; " and on the same day he writes, 
*' I have no doubt of incurring much censure 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 33 

and obloquy for this measure ; " a day or two 
later he speaks of certain persons " who hate 
me rather more than they love any principle ; " 
when he expressed an opinion in favor of ratify- 
ing a treaty with the Creeks, he remarks quite 
philosophically, that he believes it " surprised 
almost every member of the Senate, and dis- 
satisfied almost all ; " when he wanted a com- 
mittee raised he did not move it himself, but 
suggested the idea to another Senator, for " I 
knew that if I moved it a spirit of jealousy 
would immediately be raised against doing any- 
thing." Writing once of some resolutions which 
he intended to propose, he says that they are 
" another feather against a whirlwind. A des- 
perate and fearful cause in which I have em- 
barked, but I must pursue it or feel myseK 
either a coward or a traitor." Another time we 
find a committee, of which he was a member, 
making its report when he had not even been 
notified of its meeting. 

It would be idle to suppose that any man could 
be sufficiently callous not to feel keenly such 
treatment. Mr. Adams was far from callous 
and he felt it deeply. But he was not crushed 
or discouraged by it, as weaker spirits would 
have been, nor betrayed into any acts of foolish 
anger which must have recoiled upon himself. 
In him warm feelings were found in singular 



34 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

combination with a cool head. An unyielding 
temper and an obstinate courage, an invincible 
confidence in his own judgment, and a stern 
conscientiousness carried him through these ear- 
lier years of severe trial as they had afterwards 
to carry him through many more. " The quali- 
ties of mind most peculiarly called for," he 
reflects in the Diary, " are firmness, persever- 
ance, patience, coolness, and forbearance. The 
prospect is not promising ; yet the part to act 
may be as honorably performed as if success 
could attend it." He understood the situation 
perfectly and met it with a better skill than that 
of the veteran politician. By a long and tedious 
but sure process he forced his way to steadily 
increasing influence, and by the close of his 
fourth year we find him taking a part in the 
business of the Senate which may be fairly 
called prominent and important. He was con- 
quering success. 

But if Mr. Adams's unpopularity was partly 
due to the fact that he was the son of his father, 
it was also largely attributable not only to his 
unconciliatory manners but to more substantial 
habits of mind and character. It is probably 
impossible for any public man, really independent 
in his political action, to lead a very comfort- 
able life amid the struggles of party. Under 
the disadvantages involved in this habit Mr. 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 35 

Adams labored to a remarkable degree. Since 
parties were first organized in this Republic no 
American statesman has ever approached him in 
persistent freedom of thought, speech, and ac- 
tion. He was regarded as a Federalist, but his 
Federalism was subject to many modifications ; 
the members of that party never were sure of 
his adherence, and felt bound to him by no very 
strong ties of political fellowship. Towards the 
close of his senatorial term he recorded, in 
reminiscence, that he had more often voted with 
the administration than with the opposition. 

The first matter of importance concerning 
which he was obliged to act was the acquisi- 
tion of Louisiana and its admission as a state of 
the Union. The Federalists were bitterly op- 
posed to this measure, regarding it as an undue 
strengthening of the South and of the slavery 
influence, to the destruction of the fair balance 
of power between the two great sections of the 
country. It was not then the moral aspect of 
the slavery element which stirred the northern 
temper, but only the antagonism of interests 
between the commercial cities of the North and 
the agricultural communities of the South. In 
the discussions and votes which took place in 
this business Mr. Adams was in favor of the 
purchase, but denied with much emphasis the 
constitutionality of the process by which the 



36 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

purchased territory was brought into the fellow- 
ship of States. This imperfect allegiance to the 
party gave more offence than satisfaction, and 
he found himself soundly berated in leading 
Federalist newspapers in New England, and 
angrily threatened with expulsion from the party. 
But in the famous impeachment of Judge Chase, 
which aroused very strong feelings, Mr. Adams 
was fortunately able to vote for acquittal. He 
regarded this measure, as well as the impeach- 
ment of Judge Pickering at the preceding 
session, as parts of an elaborate scheme on the 
part of the President for degrading the national 
judiciary and rendering it subservient to the 
legislative branch of the government. So many, 
however, even of Mr. Jefferson's stanch adher- 
ents revolted against his requisitions on this 
occasion, and he himself so far lost heart before 
the final vote was taken, that several Republi- 
cans voted with the Federalists, and Mr. Adams 
could hardly claim much credit with his party 
for standing by them in this emergency. 

It takes a long while for such a man to secure 
respect, and great ability for him ever to achieve 
influence. In time, however, Mr. Adams saw 
gratifying indications that he was acquiring 
both, and in February, 1806, we find him 
writing : — 

" This is the third session I have sat in Congress. 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 37 

I came In as a member of a very small minority, and 
during the two former sessions almost uniformly 
avoided to take a lead ; any other course would 
have been dishonest or ridiculous. On the very few 
and unimportant objects which I did undertake, I 
met at first with universal opposition. The last ses- 
sion my influence rose a little, at the present it has 
hitherto been apparently rising." 

He was so far a cool and clear-headed judge, 
even in his own case, that this encouraging esti- 
mate may be accepted as correct upon his sole 
authority without other evidence. But the fair 
prospect was overcast almost in its dawning, and 
a period of supreme trial and of apparently irre- 
trievable ruin was at hand. 

Topics were coming forward for discussion 
concerning which no American could be indif- 
ferent, and no man of Mr. Adams's spirit could 
be silent. The policy of Great Britain towards 
this country, and the manner in which it was 
to be met, stirred profound feelings and opened 
such fierce dissensions as it is now difficult to 
appreciate. For a brief time Mr. Adams was 
to be a prominent actor before the people. It 
is fortunately needless to repeat, as it must 
ever be painful to remember, the familiar and 
too humiliating tale of the part which France 
and England were permitted for so many years 
to play in our national politics, when our par- 



38 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

ties were not divided upon American questions, 
but wholly by their sympathies with one or 
other of these contending European powers. 
Under Washington the English party had, with 
infinite difficulty, been able to prevent their ad- 
versaries from fairly enlisting the United States 
as active partisans of France, in spite of the 
fact that most insulting treatment was received 
from that country. Under John Adams the 
same so-called British faction had been baulked 
in their hope of precipitating a war with the 
French. Now in Mr. Jefferson's second admin- 
istration, the French party having won the as- 
cendant, the new phase of the same long strug- 
gle presented the question, whether or not we 
should be drawn into a war with Great Britain. 
Grave as must have been the disasters of such a 
war in 1806, grave as they were when the war 
actually came six years later, yet it is impossi- 
ble to recall the provocations which were in> 
flicted upon us without almost regretting that 
prudence was not cast to the winds and any 
woes encountered in preference to unresisting 
submission to such insolent outrages. Our 
gorge rises at the narration three quarters of a 
century after the acts were done. 

Mr. Adams took his position early and boldly. 
In February, 1806, he introduced into the Sen- 
ate certain resolutions strongly condemnatory of 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 39 

the right, claimed and vigorously exercised by 
the British, of seizing neutral vessels employed 
in conducting with the enemies of Great Brit- 
ain any trade which had been customarily pro- 
hibited by that enemy in time of peace. This 
doctrine was designed to shut out American 
merchants from certain privileges in trading 
with French colonies, which had been accorded 
only since France had become involved in war 
with Great Britain. The principle was utterly 
illegal and extremely injurious. Mr. Adams, 
in his first resolution, stigmatized it " as an un- 
provoked aggression upon the property of the 
citizens of these United States, a violation of 
their neutral rights, and an encroachment upon 
their national independence." By his second 
resolution, the President was requested to de- 
mand and insist upon the restoration of pro- 
perty seized under this pretext, and upon indem- 
nification for property already confiscated. By 
a rare good fortune, Mr. Adams had the plea- 
sure of seeing his propositions carried, only 
slightly modified by the omission of the words 
" to insist." But they were carried, of course, 
by Republican votes, and they by no means ad- 
vanced their mover in the favor of the Feder- 
alist party. Strange as it may seem, that party, 
of which many of the foremost supporters were 
engaged in the very commerce which Great 



40 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

Britain aimed to suppress and destroy, seemed 
not to be so much incensed against lier as against 
their own government. The theory of the 
party was, substantially, that England had been 
driven into these measures by the friendly tone 
of our government towards France, and by her 
own stringent and overruling necessities. The 
cure was not to be sought in resistance, not 
even in indio:nation and remonstrance addressed 
to that power, but rather in cementing an alli- 
ance with her, and even, if need should be, in 
taking active part in her holy cause. The feel- 
ing seemed to be that we merited the chastise- 
ment because we had not allied ourselves with 
the chastiser. These singular notions of the 
Federalists, however, were by no means the no- 
tions of Mr. John Quincy Adams, as we shall 
soon see. 

On April 18, 1806, the Non-importation Act 
received the approval of the President. It was 
the first measure indicative of resentment or re- 
taliation which was taken by our government. 
When it was upon its passage it encountered 
the vigorous resistance of the Federalists, but 
received the support of Mr. Adams. On May 
16, 1806, the British government made another 
long stride in the course of lawless oppression 
of neutrals, which phrase, as commerce then 
was, signified little else than Americans. A 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 41 

proclamation was issued declaring the whole 
coast of the European continent, from Brest to 
the mouth of the Elbe, to be under blockade. 
In fact, of course, the coast was not blockaded, 
and the proclamation was a falsehood, an un- 
justifiable effort to make words do the work of 
war-ships. The doctrine which it was thus en- 
deavored to establish had never been admitted 
into international law, has ever since been re- 
pudiated by universal consent of all nations, 
and is intrinsically preposterous. The British, 
however, designed to make it effective, and set 
to work in earnest to confiscate all vessels and 
cargoes captured on their way from any neutral 
nation to any port within the proscribed dis- 
trict. On November 21, next following, Napo- 
leon retaliated by the Berlin decree, so called, 
declaring the entire British Isles to be under 
blockade, and forbidding any vessel which had 
been in any English port after publication of 
his decree to enter any port in the dominions 
under his control. In January, 1807, England 
made the next move by an order, likewise in 
contravention of international law, forbidding 
to neutrals all commerce between ports of the 
enemies of Great Britain. On November 11, 
1807, the famous British Order in Council was 
issued, declaring neutral vessels and cargoes 
bound to any port or colony of any country 



42 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

with which England was then at war, and 
which was closed to English ships, to be liable 
to capture and confiscation. A few days later, 
November 25, 1807, another Order established 
a rate of duties to be paid in England upon all 
neutral merchandise which should be permitted 
to be carried in neutral bottoms to countries 
at war with that power. December 17, 1807, 
Naj)oleon retorted by the Milan decree, which 
declared denationalized and subject to capture 
and condemnation every vessel, to whatsoever 
nation belonging, which should have submitted 
to search by an English ship, or should be on a 
voyage to England, or should have paid any tax 
to the English government. All these regula- 
tions, though purporting to be aimed at neutrals 
generally, in fact bore almost exclusively upon 
the United States, who alone were undertaking 
to conduct any neutral commerce woi^hy of 
mention. As Mr. Adams afterwards remarked, 
the effect of these illegal proclamations and un- 
justifiable novel doctrines " placed the com- 
merce and shipping of the United States, with 
regard to all Europe and European colonies 
(Sweden alone excepted), in nearly the same 
state as it would have been, if, on that same 
11th of November, England and France had 
both declared war against the United States." 
The merchants of this country might as well 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 43 

have burned their ships as have submitted to 
these decrees. 

All this while the impressment of American 
seamen by British ships of war was being vigor- 
ously prosecuted. This is one of those outrages 
so long ago laid away among the mouldering 
tombs in the historical graveyard that few per- 
sons now appreciate its enormity, or the extent 
to which it was carried. Those who will be at 
the pains to ascertain the truth in the matter 
will feel that the bloodiest, most costly, and most 
disastrous war would have been better than tame 
endurance of treatment so brutal and unjustifiable 
that it finds no parallel even in the long and dark 
list of wrongs which Great Britain has been wont 
to inflict upon all the weaker or the uncivilized 
peoples with whom she has been brought or has 
gratuitously forced herself into unwelcome con- 
tact. It was not an occasional act of high-handed 
arrogance that was done ; there were not only a 
few unfortunate victims, of whom a large pro- 
portion might be of unascertained nationality. 
It was an organized system worked upon a very 
large scale. Every American seaman felt it 
necessary to have a certificate of citizenship, 
accompanied by a description of his features and 
of all the marks upon his person, as Mr. Adams 
said, " like the advertisement for a runaway negro 
slave." Nor was even this protection by any 






44 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

means sure to be always efficient. The number 
of undoubted American citizens who were seized 
rose in a few years actually to many thousands. 
They were often taken without so much as a 
false pretence to right ; but with the acknow- 
ledgment that they were Americans, they were 
seized upon the plea of a necessity for their 
services in the British ship. Some American 
vessels were left so denuded of seamen that they 
were lost at sea for want of hands to man them ; 
the destruction of lives as well as property, un- 
questionably thus caused, was immense. When 
after the lapse of a long time and of infinite 
negotiation the American citizenship of some 
individual was clearly shown, still the chances of 
his return were small ; some false and ignoble 
subterfuge was resorted to ; he was not to be 
found ; the name did not occur on the rolls of 
the navy ; he had died, or been discharged, or 
had deserted, or had been shot. The more 
i ; illegal the act committed by any British officer 
1 ; the more sure he was of reward, till it seemed 
that the impressment of American citizens was 
an even surer road to promotion than valor in 
an engagement with the enemy. Such were the 
substantial wrongs inflicted by Great Britain ; 
nor were any pains taken to cloak their character ; 
on the contrary, they were done with more than 
British insolence and offensiveness, and were 



1 •> 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 45 

accompanied with insults which alone constituted 
sufficient provocation to war. To all this, for a 
long time, nothing but empty and utterly futile 
protests were opposed by this country. The affair 
of the Chesapeake, indeed, threatened for a brief 
moment to bring things to a crisis. That ves- 
sel, an American frigate, commanded by Com- 
modore Bari'on, sailed on June 22, 1807, from 
Hampton lioads. The Leopard, a British fifty- 
gun ship, followed her, and before she was out 
of sight of land, hailed her and demanded the 
delivery of four men, of whom three at least 
were surely native Americans. Barron refused 
the demand, though his ship was wholly unpre- 
pared for action. Thereupon the Englishman 
opened his broadsides, killed three men and 
wounded sixteen, boarded the Chesapeake and 
took off the four sailors. They were carried to 
Halifax and tried by court-martial for desertion : 
one of them was hanged ; one died in confine- 
ment, and five years elapsed before the other 
two were returned to the Chesapeake in Boston 
harbor. This wound was sufficiently deep to 
arouse a real spirit of resentment and revenge, 
and England went so far as to dispatch Mr. 
Rose to this country upon a pretended mission 
of peace, though the fraudulent character of his 
errand was sufficiently indicated by the fact 
that within a few hours after his departure the 



46 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

first of tlie above named Orders in Council was 
issued but had not been communicated to him. 
As Mr. Adams indignantly said, "the same pen- 
ful of ink which signed his instructions might 
have been used also to sign these illegal orders." 
Admiral Berkeley, the commander of the Leop- 
ard, received the punishment which he might 
justly have expected if precedent was to count 
for anything in the naval service of Great 
Britain, — he was promoted. 

It is hardly worth while to endeavor to measure 
the comparative wrongfulness of the conduct of 
England and of France. The behavior of each 
was utterly unjustifiable ; though England by 
committing the first extreme breach of interna- 
tional law gave to France the excuse of retaliation. 
There was, however, vast difference in the 
practical effect of the British and French decrees. 
The former wrought serious injury, falling little 
short of total destruction, to American shipping 
and commerce ; the latter were only in a much 
less degree hurtful. The immense naval power 
of England and the channels in which our trade 
naturally flowed combined to make her destruc- 
tive capacity as towards us very great. It was 
the outrages inflicted by her which brought the 
merchants of the United States face to face with 
ruin ; they suffered not very greatly at the hands 
of Napoleon. Neither could the villainous process 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 47 

of impressment be conducted by Frenchmen. 
Trance gave us cause for war, but England 
seemed resolved to drive us into it. 

As British aggressions grew steadily and rap- 
idly more intolerable, Mr. Adams found himself 
straining farther and farther away from those 
Federalist moorings at which, it must be con- 
fessed, he had long swung very precariously. 
The constituency which he represented was in- 
deed in a quandary so embarrassing as hardly to 
be capable of maintaining any consistent policy. 
The New England of that day was a trading 
community, of which the industry and capital 
were almost exclusively centred in shi2>owning 
and commerce. The merchants, almost to a 
man, had long been the most Anglican of Fed- 
eralists in their political sympathies. Now they 
found themselves suffering utterly ruinous treat- 
ment at the hands of those whom they had 
loved overmuch. They were being ruthlessly 
destroyed by their friends, to whom they had 
been, so to speak, almost disloyally loyal. They 
saw their business annihilated, their property 
seized, and yet could not give utterance to re- 
sentment, or counsel resistance, without such a 
humiliating devouring of all their own princi- 
ples and sentiments as they could by no possi- 
bility bring themselves to endure. There was 
but one road open to them, and that was the 



48 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

ignoble one of casting themselves wholly into 
the arms of England, of rewarding her blows 
with caresses, of submitting to be fairly scourged 
into a servile alliance with her. It is not sur- 
prising that the independent temper of Mr, 
Adams revolted at the position which his party 
seemed not reluctant to assume at this juncture. 
Yet not very much better seemed for a time 
the policy of the administration. Jefferson was 
far from being a man for troubled seasons, 
which called for high sj)irit and executive en- 
ergy. His flotillas of gunboats and like idle 
and silly fantasies only excited Mr. Adams's 
disgust. In fact, there was upon all sides a 
strong dread of a war with England, not always 
openly expressed, but now perfectly visible, aris- 
ing with some from regard for that country, in 
others prompted by fear of her power. Alone 
among public men Mr. Adams, while earnestly 
hoping to escape war, was not willing to seek 
that escape by unlimited weakness and un- 
bounded submission to lawless injury. 

On November 17, 1807, Mr. Adams, who 
never in his life allowed fear to become a mo- 
tive, wrote, with obvious contempt and indig- 
nation : " I observe among the members great 
embarrassment, alarm, anxiety, and confusion 
of mind, but no preparation for any measure 
of vigor, and an obvious strong disposition to 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 49 

yield all that Great Britain may require, to pre- 
serve peace, under a thin external show of dig- 
nity and bravery." This tame and vacillating- 
spirit roused his ire, and as it was chiefly mani- 
fested by his own party it alienated him from 
them farther than ever. Yet his wrath was so 
far held in reasonable check by his discretion 
that he would still have liked to avoid the peril- 
ous conclusion of arms, and though his impulse 
was to fight, yet he could not but recognize that 
the sensible course was to be content, for the 
time at least, with a manifestation of resent- 
ment, and the most vigorous acts short of war 
which the government could be induced to un- 
dertake. On this sentiment were based his in- 
troduction of the aforementioned resolutions, his 
willingness to support the administration, and 
his vote for the Non-importation Act in spite of 
a dislike for it as a very imperfectly satisfactory 
measure. But it was not alone his naturally in- 
dependent temper which led him thus to feel so 
differently from other members of his party. In 
Europe he had had opportunities of forming a 
judgment more accurate than was possible for 
most Americans concerning the sentiments and 
policy of England towards this country. Not 
only had he been present at the negotiations 
resulting in the treaty of peace, but he had also 
afterwards been for several months engaged in 



50 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

the personal discussion of commercial questions 
with the British minister of foreign affairs. 
From all that he had thus seen and heard he 
had reached the conviction, unquestionably cor- 
rect, that the British were not only resolved to 
adopt a selfish course towards the United States, 
which might have been expected, but that they 
were consistently pursuing the further distinct 
design of crippling and destroying American 
commerce, to the utmost degree which their own 
extensive trade and great naval authority and 
power rendered possible. So long as he held 
this firm belief, it was inevitable that he should 
be at issue with the Federalists in all matters 
concerning our policy towards Great Britain. 
The ill-will naturally engendered in him by 
this conviction was increased to profound in- 
dignation when illiberal measures were suc- 
ceeded by insults, by substantial wrongs in di- 
rect contravention of law, and by acts properly 
to be described as of real hostility. For Mr. 
Adams was by nature not only independent, but 
resentful and combative. When, soon after the 
attack of the Leopard upon the Chesapeake, he 
heard the transaction " openly justified at noon- 
day," by a prominent Federalist,^ " in a public 
insurance office upon the exchange at Boston," 
his temper rose. " This," he afterward wrote, 

^ Mr. John Lowell. 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 51 

" this was the cause . . . which alienated me 
from that day and forever from the councils of 
the Federal party." When the news of that 
outrage reached Boston, Mr. Adams was there, 
and desired that the leading Federalists in 
the city should at once " take the lead in pro- 
moting a strong and clear expression of the 
sentiments of the people, and in an open and 
free-hearted manner, setting aside all party feel- 
ings, declare their determination at that crisis 
to support the government of their country." 
But unfortunately these gentlemen were by no 
means prepared for any such action, and fool- 
ishly left it for the friends of the administration 
to give the first utterance to a feeling which it 
is hard to excuse any American for not enter- 
taining beneath such provocation. It was the 
Jeffersonians, accordingly, who convened " an 
informal meeting of the citizens of Boston and 
the neighboring towns," at which Mr. Adams 
was present, and by which he was put upon 
a committee to draw and report resolutions. 
These resolutions pledged a cheerful coopera- 
tion " in any measures, however serious," which 
the government might deem necessary and a 
support of the same with " lives and fortunes." 
The Federalists, learning too late that their 
backwardness at this crisis was a blunder, 
caused a town meeting to be called at Faneuil 



52 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

Hall a few days later. This also Mr. Adams 
attended, and again was put on the committee 
to draft resolutions, which were only a little less 
strong than those of the earlier assemblage. 
But though many of the Federalists thus tar- 
dily and reluctantly fell in with the popular 
sentiment, they were for the most part heartily 
incensed against Mr. Adams. They threatened 
him that he should " have his head taken off 
for apostasy," and gave him to understand that 
he " should no longer be considered as having 
any communion with the party." If he had 
not already quite left them, they now turned 
him out from their community. But such 
abusive treatment was ill adapted to influence 
a man of his temper. Martyrdom, which in 
time he came to relish, had not now any ter- 
rors for him ; and he would have lost as many 
heads as ever grew on Hydra, ere he would 
have yielded on a point of principle. 

His spirit was soon to be demonstrated. 
Congress was convened in extra sessiou on 
October 26, 1807. The administration brought 
forward the bill establishing an embargo. The 
measure may now be pronounced a blunder, 
and its proposal created a howl of rage and 
anguish from the commercial states, who saw 
in it only their utter ruin. Already a strong 
sectional feeling had been developed between 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 53 

the planters of the South and the merchants of 
the North and East, and the latter now united 
in the cry that their quarter was to be ruined 
by the ignorant policy of this Virginian Presi- 
dent. Terrible then was their wrath, when they 
actually saw a Massachusetts Senator boldly give 
his vote for what they deemed the most odious 
and wicked bill which had ever been presented 
in the halls of Congress. Nay, more, they 
learned with horror that Mr. Adams had even 
been a member of the committee which reported 
the bill, and that he had joined in the report. 
Henceforth the Federal party was to be like a 
hive of enraged hornets about the devoted ren- 
egade. No abuse which they could heap upon 
him seemed nearly adequate to the occasion. 
They despised him ; they loathed him ; they said 
and believed that he was false, selfish, designing, 
a traitor, an apostate, that he had run away 
from a failing cause, that he had sold himself. 
The language of contumely was exhausted in 
vain efforts to describe his baseness. Not even 
yet has the echo of the hard names which he 
was called quite died away in the land ; and 
there are still families in New England with 
whom his dishonest tergiversation remains a 
traditional belief. 

Never was any man more unjustly aspersed. 
It is impossible to view all the evidence dis- 



64 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

passionately without not only acquitting Mr. 
Adams but greatly admiring liis courage, his 
constancy, his independence. Whether the em- 
bargo was a wise and efficient or a futile and 
useless measure has little to do with the ques- 
tion of his conduct. The emergency called for 
strong action. The Federalists suggested only a 
temporizing submission, or that we should avert 
the terrible wrath of England by crawling be- 
neath her lashes into political and commercial 
servitude. Mr. Jefferson thought the embargo 
would do, that it would aid him in his negotia- 
tions with England sufficiently to enable him to 
bring her to terms ; he had before thought the 
same of the Non-importation Act. Mr. Adams 
felt, properly enough, concerning both these 
schemes, that they were insufficient and in 
many respects objectionable ; but that to give 
the administration hearty support in the most 
vigorous measures which it was willing to un- 
dertake, was better than to aid an opposition 
utterly nerveless and servile and altogether 
devoid of so much as the desire for efficient 
action. It was no time to stay with the party 
of weakness ; it was right to strengthen rather 
than to hamper a man so pacific and spiritless as 
Mr. Jefferson ; to show a readiness to forward 
even his imperfect expedients ; to display a 
united and indignant, if not quite a hostile 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 55 

front to Great Britain, ratlier than to exhibit a 
tame and friendly feeling towards her. It was 
for these reasons, which had already controlled 
his action concerning the non-importation bill, 
that Mr. Adams joined in reporting the em- 
bargo bill and voted for it. He never pre- 
tended that he himself had any especial fancy 
for either of these measures, or that he regarded 
them as the best that could be devised under 
the circumstances. On the contrary, he hoped 
that the passage of the embargo would allow of 
the repeal of its predecessor. That he expected 
some good from it, and that it did some little 
good, cannot be denied. It did save a great deal 
of American property, both shipping and mer- 
chandise, from seizure and condemnation ; and 
if it cut off the income it at least saved much 
of the principal of our merchants. If only the 
bill had been promptly repealed so soon as this 
protective purpose had been achieved, without 
awaiting further and altogether impossible ben- 
efits to accrue from it as an offensive measure, 
it might perhaps have left a better memory be- 
hind it. Unfortunately no one can deny that it 
was continued much too long. Mr. Adams saw 
this error and dreaded the consequences. After 
he had left Congress and had gone back to pri- 
vate life, he exerted all the influence which he 
had with the Republican members of Congress 



56 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

to secure its repeal and the substitution of the 
Non-intercourse Act, an exchange which was in 
time accomplished, though much too tardily. 
Nay, much more than this, Mr. Adams stands 
forth almost alone as the advocate of threaten- 
ing if not of actually belligerent measures. He 
expressed his belief that "our internal re- 
sources [were] competent to the establishment 
and maintenance of a naval force, public and 
private, if not fully adequate to the protection 
and defence of our commerce, at least sufficient 
to induce a retreat from hostilities, and to deter 
from a renewal of them by either of the war- 
ring parties ; " and he insisted that " a system to 
that effect might be formed, ultimately far more 
economical, and certainly more energetic," than 
the embargo. But his " resolution met no en- 
couragement." He found that it was the em- 
bargo or nothing, and he thought the embargo 
was a little better than nothing, as probably it 
was. 

All the arguments which Mr. Adams ad- 
vanced were far from satisfying his constituents 
in those days of wild political excitement, and 
they quickly found the means of intimating their 
unappeasable displeasure in a way certainly not 
open to misapprehension. Mr. Adams's term 
of service in the Senate was to expire on March 
3, 1809. On June 2 and 3, 1808, anticipating by 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 57 

many montlis the customary time for filling the 
coming vacancy, the legislature of Massachusetts 
proceeded to choose James Lloyd, junior, his 
successor. The votes were, in the Senate 21 for 
Mr. Lloyd, 17 for Mr. Adams ; in the House 
248 for Mr. Lloyd, and 213 for Mr. Adams. A 
more insulting method of administering a re- 
buke could not have been devised. At the same 
time, in further expression of disapprobation, 
resolutions strongly condemnatory of the em- 
bargo were passed. Mr. Adams was not the 
man to stay where he was not wanted, and on 
June 8 he sent in his letter of resignation. On 
the next day Mr. Lloyd was chosen to serve for 
the balance of his term. 

Thus John Quincy Adams changed sides. 
The son of John Adams lost the senatorship 
for persistently supporting the administration 
of Thomas Jefferson. It was indeed a singular 
spectacle ! In 1803 he had been sent to the 
Senate of the United States by Federalists as 
a Federalist ; in 1808 he had abjured them and 
they had repudiated him ; in 1809, as we are 
soon to see, he received a foreign appointment 
from the Republican President Madison, and 
was confirmed by a Republican Senate. Many 
of Mr. Adams's acts, many of his traits, have 
been harshly criticised, but for no act that he 
ever did or ever was charged with doing has 



68 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

he been so harshly assailed as for this journey 
from one camp to the other. The gentlemen 
of wealth, position, and influence in Eastern 
Massachusetts, almost to a man, turned against 
him with virulence ; many of their descendants 
still cherish the ancestral prejudice ; and it may 
yet be a long while before the last mutterings 
of this deep-rooted antipathy die away. But 
that they will die away in time cannot be 
doubted. Praise will succeed to blame. Truth 
must prevail in a case where such abundant 
evidence is accessible ; and the truth is that Mr. 
Adams's conduct was not ignoble, mean, and 
traitorous, but honorable, courageous, and dis- 
interested. Those who singled him out for 
assault, though deaf to his arguments, might 
even then have reflected that within a few years 
a large proportion of the whole nation had 
changed in their opinions as he had now at last 
changed in his, so that the party which under 
Washington hardly had an existence and under 
John Adams was not, until the last moment, 
seriously feared, now showed an enormous ma- 
jority throughout the whole country. Even in 
Massachusetts, the intrenched camp of the Fed- 
eralists, one half of the population were now 
Republicans. But that change of political sen- 
timent which in the individual voter is often 
admired as evidence of independent thought is 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 59 

stigmatized in those more prominent in politics 
as tergiversation and apostasy. 

It may be admitted that there are sound 
reasons for holding party leaders to a more 
rigid allegiance to party policy than is expected 
of the rank and file ; yet certainly, at those 
periods when substantially new measures and 
new doctrines come to the front, the old party 
names lose whatever sacredness may at other 
times be in them, and the political fellowships 
of the past may properly be reformed. Novel 
problems cannot always find old comrades still 
united in opinions. Precisely such was the case 
with John Quincy Adams and the Federalists. 
The earlier Federalist creed related to one set 
of issues, the later Federalist creed to quite 
another set ; the earlier creed was sound and 
deserving of support ; the later creed was not 
so. It is easy to see, as one looks backward 
upon history, that every great and successful 
party has its mission, that it wins its success 
through the substantial righteousness of that 
mission, and that it owes its downfall to as- 
suming: an erroneous attitude towards some 
subsequent matter which becomes in turn of 
predominating importance. Sometimes, though 
rarely, a party remains on the right side through 
two or even more successive issues of profound 
consequence to the nation. The Federalist mis- 



60 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

sion was to establish the Constitution of the 
United States as a vigorous, efficient, and prac- 
tical system of government, to prove its sound- 
ness, safety, and efficacy, and to defend it from 
the undermining assaults of those who dis- 
trusted it and would have reduced it to imbe- 
cility. Supplementary and cognate to this was 
the further task of giving the young nation and 
the new system a chance to get fairly started in 
life before being subjected to the strain of war 
and European entanglements. To this end it 
was necessary to hold in check the Jeffersonian 
or French party, who sought to embroil us in 
a foreign quarrel. These two functions of the 
Federalist party were quite in accord ; they in- 
volved the organizing and domestic instinct 
against the disorganizing and meddlesome ; the 
strengthening against the enfeebliug process ; 
practical thinking against fanciful theories. For- 
tunately the able men had been generally of the 
sound persuasion, and by powerful exertions had 
carried the day and accomplished their allotted 
tasks so thoroughly that all subsequent genera- 
tions of Americans have been reaping the ben- 
efit of their labors. But by the time that John 
Adams had concluded his administration the 
great Federalist work had been sufficiently done. 
Those who still believe that there is an over- 
ruling Providence in the affairs of men and na- 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 61 

tions may well point to the history of this 
period in support of their theory. Republican- 
ism was not able to triumph till Federalism had 
fulfilled all its proper duty and was on the point 
of going wrong. 

During this earlier period John Quincy Adams 
had been a Federalist by conviction as well as 
by education. Nor was there any obvious reason 
for him to change his political faith with the 
change of party success, brought about as that 
was before its necessity was apparent but by 
the sure and inscrutable wisdom so marvellously 
enclosed in the great popular instinct. It was 
not patent, when Mr. Jefferson succeeded Mr. 
Adams, that Federalism was soon to become 
an unsoimd political creed — unsound, not be- 
cause it had been defeated, but because it had 
done its work, and in the new emergency was 
destined to blunder. During Mr. Jefferson's 
first administration no questions of novel im- 
port arose. But they were not far distant, and 
soon were presented by the British aggressions. 
A grave crisis was created by this system of 
organized destruction of property and wholesale 
stealing of citizens, now suddenly practised with 
such terrible energy. What was to be done ? 
What had the two great parties to advise con- 
cerning the policy of the country in this hour of 
peril? Unfortunately for the Federalists old 



62 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

predilections were allowed now to govern their 
present action. Excusably Anglican in the by- 
gone days of Genet's mission, they now re- 
mained still Anglican, when to be Anglican was 
to be emphatically un-American. As one reads 
the history of 1807 and 1808 it is impossible 
not to feel almost a sense of personal gratitude 
to John Quincy Adams that he dared to step 
out from his meek-spirited party and do all that 
circumstances rendered possible to promote re- 
sistance to insults and wrongs intolerable. In 
truth, he was always a man of high temper, and 
eminently a patriotic citizen of the United 
States. Unlike too many even of the best 
among his countrymen in those early years of 
the Republic, he had no foreign sympathies 
whatsoever ; he was neither French nor English, 
but wholly, exclusively, and warmly American. 
He had no second love ; the United States 
filled his public heart and monopolized his po- 
litical affections. When he was abroad he es- 
tablished neither affiliations nor antipathies, 
and when he was at home he drifted with no 
party whose course was governed by foreign 
magnets. It needs only that this characteristic 
should be fully understood in order that his 
conduct in 1808 should be not alone vindicated 
but greatly admired. 

At that time it was said, and it has been since 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 63 

repeated, that lie was allured by the loaves and 
fishes which the Republicans could distribute, 
while the Federalists could cast to him only 
meagre and uncertain crusts. Circumstances 
gave to the accusation such a superficial plau- 
sibility that it was believed by many honest 
men under the influence of political prejudice. 
But such a charge, alleged concerning a single 
act in a long public career, is to be scanned 
with suspicion. Disproof by demonstration is 
impossible ; but it is fair to seek for the charac- 
ter of the act in a study of the character of the 
actor, as illustrated by the rest of his career. 
Thus seeking we shall see that, if any traits can 
be surely predicated of any man, independence, 
courage, and honesty may be predicated of Mr. 
Adams. His long public life had many periods 
of trial, yet this is the sole occasion when it is 
so much as possible seriously to question the 
purity of his motives — for the story of his in- 
trigue with Mr. Clay to secure the Presidency 
was never really believed by any one except 
General Jackson, and the beliefs of General 
Jackson are of little consequence. From the 
earliest to the latest day of his public life, he 
was never a party man. He is entitled to the 
justification to be derived from this life-long 
habit, when, in 1807-8, he voted against the 
wishes of those who had hoped to hold him in 



64 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

the bonds of partisan alliance. In point of fact, 
so far from these acts being a yielding to selfish 
and calculating temptation, they called for great 
courage and strength of mind ; instead of being 
tergiversation, they were a triumph in a severe 
ordeal. Mr. Adams was not so dull as to under= 
rate, nor so void of good feeling as to be care- 
less of, the storm of obloquy which he had to 
encounter, not only in such shape as is custom- 
ary in like instances of a change of sides in 
politics, but, in his present case, of a peculiarly 
painful kind. He was to seem unfaithful, not 
only to a party, but to the bitter feud of a fa- 
ther whom he dearly loved and greatly re- 
spected ; he was to be reviled by the neighbors 
and friends who constituted his natural social 
circle in Boston ; he was to alienate himself 
from the rich, the cultivated, the influential 
gentlemen of his neighborhood, his comrades, 
who would almost universally condemn his con- 
duct. He was to lose his position as Senator, 
and probably to destroy all hopes of further 
political success so far as it depended upon the 
good will of the people of his own State. In 
this he was at least giving up a certainty in ex- 
change for what even his enemies must admit to 
have been only an expectation. 

But in fact it is now evident that there was 
not upon his part even an expectation. At the 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 65 

first signs of the views which he was likely to 
hold, that contemptible but influential Republi- 
can, Giles, of Virginia, also one or two others 
of the same party, sought to approach him with 
insinuating suggestions. But Mr. Adams met 
these advances in a manner frigid and repellent 
even beyond his wont, and far from seeking to 
conciliate these emissaries, and to make a bar- 
gain, or even establish a tacit understanding for 
his own benefit, he held them far aloof, and sim- 
ply stated that he wished and expected nothing 
from the administration. His mind was made 
up, his opinion was formed ; no bribe was needed 
to secure his vote. Not thus do men sell them- 
selves in politics. The Republicans were fairly 
notified that he was going to do just as he 
chose ; and Mr. Jefferson, the arch-enemy of all 
Adamses, had no occasion to forego his feud to 
win this recruit from that family. 

Mr. Adams's Diary shows unmistakably that 
he was acting rigidly upon principle, that he 
believed himself to be injuring or even destroy- 
ing his political prospects, and that in so do- 
ing he taxed his moral courage severely. The 
whole tone of the Diary, apart from those few 
distinct statements which hostile critics might 
view with distrust, is despondent, often bitter, 
but defiant and stubborn. If in later life he 
ever anticipated the possible publication of these 



6G JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

private pages, yet he could hardly have done 
so at this early day. Among certain general 
reflections at the close of the year 1808, he 
writes : " On most of the great national ques- 
tions now under discussion, my sense of duty 
leads me to support the Administration, and I 
find myself, of course, in opposition to the Fed- 
eralists in general. But I have no communica- 
tion with the President, other than that in the 
regular order of business in the Senate. In this 
state of things my situation calls in a peculiar 
manner for prudence ; my political prospects 
are declining, and, as my term of service draws 
near its close, I am constantly approaching to 
the certainty of being restored to the situation 
of a private citizen. For this event, however, 
I hope to have my mind sufficiently prepared." 

In July, 1808, the Republicans of the Con- 
gressional District wished to send him to the 
House of Representatives, but to the gentle- 
man who waited upon him with this proposal 
he returned a decided negative. Other consid- 
erations apart, he would not interfere with the 
reelection of his friend, Mr. Quincy. 

Certain remarks, written when his senatorial 
term was far advanced, when he had lost the 
confidence of the Federalists without obtaining 
that of the Republicans, may be of interest at 
this point. He wrote, October 30, 1807: "I 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 67 

employed the whole evening in looking over 
the Journal of the Senate, since I have been 
one of its members. Of the very little business 
which I have commenced during the four ses- 
sions, at least three fourths has failed, with cir- 
cumstances of peculiar mortification. The very 
few instances in which I have succeeded, have 
been always after an opposition of great obsti- 
nacy, often ludicrously contrasting with the in- 
significance of the object in pursuit. More 
than one instance has occurred where the same 
thing which I have assiduously labored in vain 
to effect has been afterwards accomplished by 
others, without the least resistance ; more than 
once, where the pleasure of disappointing me 
has seemed to be the prominent principle of 
decision. Of the preparatory business, matured 
in committees, I have had a share, gradually in- 
creasing through the four sessions, but always 
as a subordinate member. The merely labori- 
ous duties have been readily assigned to me, and 
as readily undertaken and discharged. My suc- 
cess has been more frequent in opposition than 
in carrying any proposition of my own, and I 
hope I have been instrumental in arresting many 
unadvised purposes and projects. Though as 
to the general policy of the country I have 
been uniformly in a small, and constantly de- 
ceasing minority ; my opinions and votes have 



68 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

been much oftener in nnlson with the Adminis- 
tration than with their opponents ; I have met 
with at least as much opposition from my party 
friends as from their adversaries, — I believe 
more. I know not that I have made any per- 
sonal enemies now in Senate, nor can I flat- 
ter myself with having acquired any personal 
friends. There have been hitherto two, Mr. 
Tracey and Mr. Plumer, upon whom I could 
rely, but it has pleased Providence to remove 
one by death, and the changes of political party 
have removed the other." This is a striking 
paragraph, certainly not written by a man in a 
very cheerful or sanguine frame of mind, not 
by one who congratulates himself on having 
skilfully taken the initial steps in a brilliant 
political career; but, it is fair to say, by one 
who has at least tried to do his duty, and who 
has not knowingly permitted himseK to be 
warped either by passion, prejudice, party alli- 
ances, or selfish considerations. 

As early as November, 1805, Mr. Adams, 
being still what may be described as an in- 
dependent Federalist, was approached by Dr. 
Rush with tentative suggestions concerning a 
foreign mission. Mr. Madison, then Secretary 
of State, and even President Jefferson were ap- 
parently not disinclined to give him such em- 
ployment, provided he would be willing to accept 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 69 

it at their hands. Mr. Adams simply replied, 
that he would not refuse a nomination merely 
because it came from Mr. Jefferson, though 
there was no office in the President's gift for 
which he had any wish. Perhaps because of 
the uncouciliatory coolness of this response, or 
perhaps for some better reason, the nomination 
did not follow at that time. No sooner, how- 
ever, had Mr. Madison fairly taken the oath of 
office as President than he bethought him of 
Mr. Adams, now no longer a Federalist, but, 
concerning the present issues, of the Republican 
persuasion. On March 6, 1809, Mr. Adams 
was notified by the President personally of the 
intention to nominate him as Minister Plenipo- 
tentiary to Pus'sia. It was a new mission, the 
first minister ever nominated to Russia having 
been only a short time before rejected by the 
Senate. But the Emperor had often expressed 
his wish to exchange ministers, and Mr. Madi- 
son was anxious to comply with the courteous 
request. Mr. Adams's name was accordingly 
at once sent to the Senate. But on the follow- 
ing day, March 7, that body resolved that " it 
is inexpedient at this time to appoint a minister 
from the United States to the Court of Russia.'* 
The vote was seventeen to fifteen, and among 
the seventeen was Mr. Adams's old colleague, 
Timothy Pickering, who probably never in his 



70 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

life cast a vote which gave him so much plea- 
sure, Mr. Madison, however, did not readily 
desist from his purpose, and a few months later, 
June 26, he sent a message to the Senate, stat- 
ing that the considerations previously leading 
him to nominate a minister to Russia had since 
been strengthened, and again naming Mr. Adams 
for the post. This time the nomination was 
confirmed with readiness, by a vote of nineteen 
to seven, Mr. Pickering, of course, being one of 
the still hostile minority. 

At noon on August 5, 1809, records Mr. 
Adams, " I left my house at the corner of Boyl- 
ston and Nassau streets, in Boston," again to 
make the tedious and uncomfortable voyage 
across the Atlantic. A miserable and a dan- 
gerous time he had of it ere, on October 23, he 
reached St. Petersburg. Concerning the four 
years and a half which he is now to spend in 
Russia very little need be said. His active du- 
ties were of the simplest character, amounting 
to little more than rendering occasional assist- 
ance to American shipmasters suffering beneath 
the severities so often illegally inflicted by the 
contesting powers of Europe. But apart from 
the slender practical service to be done, the 
period must have been interesting and agree- 
able for him personally, for he was received and 
treated throughout his stay by the Emperor 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 71 

and his courtiers with distinguished kindness. 
The Emperor, who often met him walking, 
used to stop and chat with him, while Count 
Romanzoff, the minister of foreign affairs, was 
cordial beyond the ordinary civility of diplo- 
macy. The Diary records a series of court pre- 
sentations, balls, fetes, dinners, diplomatic and 
other, launches, displays of fireworks, birthday 
festivities, parades, baptisms, plays, state fu- 
nerals, illuminations, and Te Deums for victo- 
ries ; in short, every species of social gayety and 
public pageant. At all these Mr. Adams was 
always a bidden and apparently a welcome 
guest. It must be admitted, even by his de- 
tractors, that he was an admirable represen- 
tative of the United States abroad. Having 
already seen much of the distinguished society 
of European courts, but retaining a republican 
simplicity, which was wholly genuine and a 
natural part of his character and therefore was 
never affected or offensive in its manifesta- 
tions, he really represented the best element in 
the politics and society of the United States. 
Winning respect for himself he won it also for 
the country which he represented. Thus he 
was able to render an indirect but essential 
service in cementing the kindly feeling which 
the Russian Empire entertained for the Amer- 
ican Republic. Russia could then do us little 



72 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

good and almost no harm, yet the friendship of 
a great European power had a certain moral 
value in those days of our national infancy. 
That friendship, so cordially offered, Mr. Ad- 
ams was fortunately well fitted to conciliate, 
showing in his foreign callings a tact which did 
not mark him in other public relations. He 
was perhaps less liked by his travelling fellow 
countrymen than by the Russians. The paltry 
ambition of a certain class of Americans for in- 
troduction to high society disgusted him greatly, 
and he was not found an efficient ally by these 
would-be comrades of the Russian aristocracy. 
"The ambition of young Americans to crowd 
themselves upon European courts and into the 
company of nobility is a very ridiculous and 
not a very proud feature of their character," he 
wrote ; " there is nothing, in my estimate of 
things, meaner than courting society where, if 
admitted, it is only to be despised." He him- 
self happily combined extensive acquirements, 
excellent ability, diplomatic and courtly experi- 
ence, and natural independence of character 
without ill-bred self-assertion, and never failed 
to create a good impression in the many circles 
into which his foreign career introduced him. 

The ambassadors and ministers from Euro- 
pean powers at St. Petersburg were constantly 
wrangling about precedence and like petty mat« 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 73 

ters of court etiquette. "In all these contro- 
versies," writes Mr. Adams, " I have endeavored 
to consider it as an affair in which I, as an 
American minister, had no concern ; and that 
my only principle is to dispute upon precedence 
with nobody." A good-natured contempt for 
European follies may be read between the lines 
of this remark ; wherein it may be said that the 
Monroe Doctrine is applied to court etiquette. 

He always made it a point to live within the 
meagre income which the United States allowed 
him, but seems to have suffered no diminution 
of consideration for this reason. One morning, 
walking on the Fontanka, he met the Emperor, 
who said : " Mons. Adams, il y a cent ans que 
je ne vous ai vu ; " and then continuing the con- 
versation, " asked me whether I intended to 
take a house in the country this summer. I 
said. No. . . . ' And why so ? ' said he. I was 
hesitating upon an answer when he relieved me 
from embarrassment by saying, ' Peutetre sont-ce 
des considerations de finance ? ' As he said it 
with perfect good humor and with a smile, I 
replied in the same manner : ' Mais Sire, elles 
y sont pour une bonne part.' " ^ 

The volume of the journal which records this 
residence in St. Petersburg is very interesting 
as a picture of Russian life and manners in 

^ An interesting' sketch of his household and its expenses is 
to be found in ii. Diary, 193. 



74 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

high society. Few travellers write anything 
nearly so vivid, so thorough, or so trustworthy 
as these entries. Moreover, during the whole 
period of his stay the great wars of Napoleon 
were constantly increasing the astonishment of 
mankind, and created intense excitement at the 
Court of Russia. These feelings waxed stronger 
as it grew daily more likely that the Emperor 
would have to take his turn also as a party de- 
fendant in the great conflict. Then at last 
came the fact of war, the invasion of Russia, 
the burning of Moscow, the disastrous retreat 
of the invaders ending in ignominious flight, 
the advance of the allies, finally the capture of 
Paris. All this while Mr. Adams at St. Peters- 
burg witnessed first the alarm and then the ex- 
ultation of the court and the people as the 
rumors now of defeat, anon of victory, were 
brought by the couriers at tantalizing intervals ; 
and he saw the rejoicings and illuminations 
which rendered the Russian capital so brilliant 
and glorious during the last portion of his res- 
idence. It was an experience well worth having, 
and which is pleasantly depicted in the Diary. 

In September, 1812, Count Romanzoff sug- 
gested to Mr. Adams the readiness of the Em- 
peror to act as mediator in bringing about peace 
between the United States and England. The 
suggestion was promptly acted upon, but with 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 75 

no directly fortunate results. The American 
government acceded at once to the proposition, 
and at the risk of an impolitic display of readi- 
ness dispatched Messrs. Gallatin and Bayard to 
act as Commissioners jointly with Mr. Adams 
in the negotiations. These gentlemen, however, 
arrived in St. Petersburg only to find themselves 
in a very awkward position. Their official char- 
acter might not properly be considered as at- 
taching unless England should accept the offer 
of mediation. But England had refused, in 
the first instance, to do this, and she now again 
reiterated her refusal without regard for the 
manifestation of willingness on the part of the 
United States. Further, Mr. Gallatin's nom- 
ination was rejected by the Senate after his 
departure, on the ground that his retention of 
the post of Secretary of the Treasury was in- 
compatible, under the Constitution, with this 
diplomatic function. So the United States ap- 
peared in a very annoying attitude, her Com- 
missioners were uncomfortable and somewhat 
humiliated ; Russia felt a certain measure of 
vexation at the brusque and positive rejection 
of her friendly proposition on the part of Great 
Britain ; and that country alone came out of 
the affair with any self-satisfaction. 

But by the time when all hopes of peace 
through the friendly offices of Russia were at 



76 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

an end, that stage of the conflict had been 
reached at which both parties were quite ready 
to desist. The United States, though triumph- 
ing in some brilliant naval victories, had been 
having a sorry experience on land, where, as 
the Russian minister remarked, " England did 
as she pleased." A large portion of the people 
were extremely dissatisfied, and it was impos- 
sible to ignore that the outlook did not promise 
better fortunes in the future than had been en- 
countered in the past. On the other hand, 
England had nothing substantial to expect from 
a continuance of the struggle, except heavy ad- 
ditional expenditure which it was not then the 
fashion to compel the worsted party to recoup. 
She accordingly intimated her readiness to send 
Commissioners to Gottingen, for which place 
Ghent was afterwards substituted, to meet 
American Commissioners and settle terms of 
pacification. The United States renewed the 
powers of Messrs. Adams, Bayard, and Galla- 
tin, a new Secretary of the Treasury having in 
the meantime been appointed, and added Jon- 
athan Russell, then Minister to Sweden, and 
Henry Clay. England deputed Lord Gambler, 
an admiral. Dr. Adams, a publicist, and Mr. 
Goulburn, a member of Parliament and Under 
Secretary of State. These eight gentlemen ac- 
cordingly met in Ghent on August 7, 1814. 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 77 

It was upwards of four months before an 
agreement was reached. During this period 
Mr. Adams kept his Diary with much more even 
than his wonted faithfulness, and it undoubtedly 
presents the most vivid picture in existence of 
the labors of treaty-making diplomatists. The 
eight were certainly an odd assemblage of peace- 
makers. The ill-blood and wranglings between 
the opposing Commissions were bad enough, yet 
hardly equalled the intestine dissensions between 
the American Commissioners themselves. That 
the spirit of peace should ever have emanated 
from such an universal embroilment is almost 
sufficiently surprising to be regarded as a mir- 
acle. At the very beginning, or even before 
fairly beginning, the British party roused the 
jealous ire of the Americans by proposing that 
they all should meet, for exchanging their full 
powers, at the lodgings of the Englishmen. The 
Americans took jfire at this " offensive pretension 
to superiority" which was "the usage from 
Ambassadors to Ministers of an inferior order." 
Mr. Adams cited Martens, and Mr. Bayard read 
a case from Ward's " Law of Nations." Mr. 
Adams suggested sending a pointed reply, agree- 
ing to meet the British Commissioners " at any 
place other than their own lodgings ; " but Mr. 
Gallatin, whose valuable function was destined 
to be the keeping of the peace among his frac- 



78 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

tioiis colleagues, as well as betwixt them and the 
Englishmen, substituted the milder phrase, " at 
any place which may be mutually agreed upon." 
The first meeting accordingly took place at the 
Hotel des Pays Bas, where it was arranged that 
the subsequent conferences should be held alter- 
nately at the quarters of the two Commissions. 
Then followed expressions, conventional and 
proper but wholly untrue, of mutual sentiments 
of esteem and good will. 

No sooner did the gentlemen begin to get 
seriously at the work before them than the most 
discouraging prospects were developed. The 
British first presented their demands, as follows : 
1. That the United States should conclude a 
peace with the Indian allies of Great Britain, 
and that a species of neutral belt of Indian 
territory should be established between the 
dominions of the United States and Great 
Britain, so that these dominions should be no- 
where conterminous, upon which belt or barrier 
neither power should be permitted to encroach 
even by purchase, and the boundaries of which 
should be settled in this treaty. 2. That the 
United States should keep no naval force upon 
the Great Lakes, and should neither maintain 
their existing forts nor build new ones upon 
their northern frontier ; it was even required 
that the boundary line should run along the 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY "^9 

southern shore of the lakes ; while no corre- 
sponding restriction was imposed upon Great 
Britain, because she was stated to have no pro- 
jects of conquest as against her neighbor. 3. 
That a piece of the province of Maine should 
be ceded, in order to give the English a road 
-from Halifax to Quebec. 4. That the stipula- 
tion of the treaty of 1783, conferring on English 
subjects the right of navigating the Mississippi, 
should be now formally renewed. 

The Americans were astounded ; it seemed to 
them hardly worth while to have come so far 
to listen to such propositions. Concerning the 
proposed Indian pacification they had not even 
any powers, the United States being already 
busied in negotiating a treaty with the tribes as 
independent powers. The establishment of the 
neutral Indian belt was manifestly contrary to 
the established policy and obvious destiny of the 
nation. Neither was the answer agreeable, which 
was returned by Dr. Adams to the inquiry as to 
what was to be done with those citizens of the 
United States who had already settled in those 
parts of Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio, included 
within the territory which it was now proposed 
to make inalienably Indian. He said that these 
people, amounting perhaps to one hundred 
thousand, " must shift for themselves." The 
one-sided disarmament upon the lakes and along 



80 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

the frontier was, by the understanding of all 
nations, such an humiliation as is inflicted only 
on a crushed adversary. No return was offered 
for the road between Halifax and Quebec ; nor 
for the right of navigating the Mississippi. The 
treaty of peace of 1788, made in ignorance of the 
topography of the unexplored northern country, 
had established an impossible boundary line 
running from the Lake of the Woods westward 
along the forty-ninth parallel to the Mississippi ; 
and as appurtenant to the British territory, thus 
supposed to touch the river, a right of navigation 
upon it was given. It had since been discovered 
that a line on that parallel would never touch 
the Mississippi. The same treaty had also 
secured for the United States certain rights con- 
cerning the Northeastern fisheries. The English 
now insisted upon a re-affirmance of the privilege 
given to them, without a re-affirmance of the 
privilege given to the United States ; ignoring 
the fact that the recent acquisition of Louisiana, 
making the Mississippi wholly American, mate- 
rially altered the propriety of a British right of 
navigation upon it. 

Apart from the intolerable character of these 
demands, the personal bearing of the English 
Commissioners did not tend to mitigate the 
chagrin of the Americans. The formal civil- 
ities had counted with the American Commis- 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 81 

sioners for more than they were worth, and hai 
induced them, in preparing a long dispatch to 
the home government, to insert '*" a paragraph 
complimentary to the personal deportment " of 
the British. But before they sent off the doc- 
ument they revised it and struck out these 
pleasant phrases. Not many days after the 
first conference Mr. Adams notes that the tone 
of the English Commissioners was even " more 
peremptory, and their language more overbear- 
ing, than at the former conferences." A little 
farther on he remarks that " the British note 
is overbearing and insulting in its tone, like 
the two former ones." Again he says : — 

"The tone of all the British notes is arrogant, 
overbearing, and offensive. The tone of ours is 
neither so bold nor so spirited as I think it should 
be. It is too much on the defensive, and too exces- 
sive in the caution to say nothing irritating. I have 
seldom been able to prevail upon my colleagues to 
insert anything in the style of retort upon the harsh 
and reproachful matter which we receive." 

Many little passages-at-arms in the confer- 
ences are recited which amply bear out these 
remarks as regards both parties. Perhaps, 
however, it should be admitted that the Amer- 
icans made up for the self-restraint which they 
practised in conference by the disagreements 
and bickerings in which they indulged when 



82 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

consulting among themselves. Mr. Gallatin's 
serene temper and cool head were hardly taxed 
to keep the peace among his excited colleagues. 
Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay were especially prone 
to suspicions and to outbursts of anger. Mr. 
Adams often and candidly admits as much of 
himself, apparently not without good reason. 
At first the onerous task of drafting the nu- 
merous documents which the Commission had 
to present devolved uj^on him, a labor for 
which he was well fitted in all respects save, 
perhaps, a tendency to prolixity. He did not, 
however, succeed in satisfying his comrades, 
and the criticisms to which they subjected his 
composition galled his self-esteem severely, so 
much so that erelong he altogether relinquished 
this function, which was thereafter performed 
chiefly by Mr. Gallatin. As early as August 
21, Mr. Adams says, not without evident bitter- 
ness, that though they all were agreed on the 
general view of the subject, yet in his " exposi- 
tion of it, one objects to the form, another to 
the substance, of almost every paragraph." Mr. 
Gallatin would strike out everything possibly 
offensive to the Englishmen; Mr. Clay would 
draw his pen through every figurative expres- 
sion ; Mr. Russell, not content with agreeing to 
all the objections of both the others, would fur- 
ther amend the construction of every sentence ,* 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 83 

and finally Mr. Bayard would insist upon writ- 
ing all over again in his own language. All 
this nettled Mr. Adams exceedingly. On Sep- 
tember 24 he again writes that it was agreed to 
adopt an article which he had drawn, " though 
with objections to almost every word " which 
he had used. " This," he says, " is a severity 
with which I alone am treated in our discussions 
by all my colleagues. Almost everything writ- 
ten by any of the rest is rejected, or agreed to 
with very little criticism, verbal or substantial. 
But every line that I write passes a gauntlet of 
objections by every one of my colleagues, which 
finally issues, for the most part, in the rejection 
of it all." He reflects, with a somewhat forced 
air of self-discipline, that this must indicate 
some faultiness in his composition which he 
must try to correct ; but in fact i^ is sufficiently 
evident that he was seldom persuaded that his 
papers were improved. Amid all this we see in 
the Diary many exhibitions of vexation. One 
day he acknowledges, " I cannot always restrain 
the irritability of my temper;" another day he 
informed his colleagues, " with too much warmth, 
that they might be assured I was as determined 
as they were ; " again he reflects, " I, too, must 
not forget to keep a constant guard upon my 
temper, for the time is evidently approaching 
when it will be wanted." Mr. Gallatin alone 



84 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

seems not to have exasperated him ; Mr. Clay 
and he were constantly in discussion, and often 
pretty hotly. Instead of coming nearer to- 
gether, as time went on, these two fell farther 
apart. What Mr. Clay thought of Mr. Adams 
may probably be inferred from what we know 
that Mr. Adams thought of Mr. Clay. " Mr. 
Clay is losing his temper, and growing peevish 
and fractious," he writes on October 31 ; and 
constantly he repeats the like complaint. The 
truth is, that the precise New Englander and 
the impetuous Westerner were kept asunder 
not only by local interests but by habits and 
modes of thought utterly dissimilar. Some 
amusing glimpses of their private life illustrate 
this difference. Mr. Adams worked hard and 
diligently, allowing himself little leisure for 
pleasure ; but JVIr. Clay, without actually neg- 
lecting his duties, yet managed to find ample 
time for enjoyment. More than once Mr. Ad- 
ams notes that, as he rose about five o'clock in 
the morning to light his own fire and begin 
the labors of the day by candle-light, he heard 
the parties breaking up and leaving Mr. Clay's 
rooms across the entry, where they had been 
playing cards all night long. In these little 
touches one sees the distinctive characters of 
the men well portrayed. 

The very extravagance of the British de- 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 85 

mands at least saved the Americans from per- 
plexity. Mr. Clay, indeed, cherished an " in- 
conceivable idea " that the Englishmen would 
" finish by receding from the ground they had 
taken ; " but meantime there could be no differ- 
ence of opinion concerning the impossibility of 
meeting them upon that ground. Mr. Adams, 
never lacking in courage, actually wished to 
argue with them that it would be for the in- 
terests of Great Britain not less than of the 
United States if Canada should be ceded to 
the latter power. Unfortunately his colleagues 
would not support him in this audacious policy, 
the humor of which is delicious. It would have 
been infinitely droll to see how the British Com- 
missioners would have hailed such a proposition, 
by way of appropriate termination of a conflict 
in which the forces of their nation had cap- 
tured and ransacked the capital city of the 
Americans ! 

On August 21 the Englishmen invited the 
Americans to dinner on the following Saturday. 
" The chance is," wrote Mr. Adams, " that be- 
fore that time the whole negotiation will be at 
an end." The banquet, however, did come off, 
and a few more succeeded it ; feasts not marked 
by any great geniality or warmth, except per- 
haps occasionally warmth of discussion. So sure 
were the Americans that they were about to 



86 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

break off the negotiations that Mr. Adams be- 
gan to consider by what route he should return 
to St. Petersburg ; and they declined to renew 
the tenure of their quarters for more than a few 
days longer. Like alarms were of frequent oc- 
currence, even almost to the very day of agree- 
ment. On September 15, at a dinner given by 
the American Commissioners, Lord Gambier 
asked Mr. Adams whether he would return im- 
mediately to St. Petersburg. " Yes," replied 
Mr. Adams, "that is, if you send us away." 
His lordship " replied with assurances how 
deeply he lamented it, and with a hope that we 
should one day be friends again." On the same 
occasion Mr. Goulburn said that probably the 
last note of the Americans would " terminate 
the business," and that they " must fight it out." 
Fighting it out was a much less painful prospect 
for Great Britain just at that juncture than for 
the United States, as the Americans realized 
with profound anxiety. " We so fondl}^ cling 
to the vain hope of peace, that every new proof 
of its impossibility operates upon us as a dis- 
appointment," wrote Mr. Adams. No amount 
of pride could altogether conceal the fact that 
the American Commissioners represented the 
worsted party, and though they never openly 
said so even among themselves, yet indirectly 
they were obliged to recognize the truth. On 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY ^7 

November 10 we find Mr. Adams proposing to 
make concessions not permitted by their instruc- 
tions, because, as he said : — 

" I felt so sure that [the home government] would 
now gladly take the state before the war as the gen- 
eral basis of the peace, that I was prepared to take 
on me the responsibility of trespassing upon their 
instructions thus far. Not only so, but I would at 
this moment cheerfully give my life for a peace on 
this basis. If peace was possible, it would be on no 
other. I had indeed no hope that the proposal would 
be accepted." 

Mr. Clay thought that the British would 
laugh at this : " They would say. Ay, ay ! pretty 
fellows you, to think of getting out of the war 
as well as you got into it." This was not con- 
soling for the representatives of that side which 
had declared war for the purpose of curing 
grievances and vindicating alleged rights. But 
that Mr. Adams correctly read the wishes of 
the government was proved within a very few 
days by the receipt of express authority from 
home " to conclude the peace on the basis of the 
status ante hellum.^^ Three days afterwards, on 
November 27, three and a half months after 
the vexatious haggling had been begun, we en- 
counter in the Diary the first real gleam of hope 
of a successful termination : '-'- All the difficul- 
ties to the conclusion of a peace appear to be 



88 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

now so nearly removed, that my colleagues all 
consider it as certain. I myself think it prob- 
able." 

There were, however, some three weeks more 
of negotiation to be gone through before the 
consummation was actually achieved, and the 
ill blood seemed to increase as the end was ap- 
proached. The differences between the Ameri- 
can Commissioners waxed especially serious con- 
cerning the fisheries and the navigation of the 
Mississippi. Mr. Adams insisted that if the 
treaty of peace had been so far abrogated by 
the war as to render necessary a re-affirmance 
of the British right of navigating the Missis- 
sippi, then a re-affirmance of the American 
rights in the Northeastern fisheries was equally 
necessary. This the English Commissioners de- 
nied. Mr. Adams said it was only an exchange 
of privileges presumably equivalent. Mr. Clay, 
however, was firmly resolved to prevent all stip- 
ulations admitting such a right of navigation, 
and the better to do so he was quite willing to 
let the fisheries go. The navigation privilege 
he considered " much too important to be con- 
ceded for the mere liberty of drying fish upon 
a desert," as he was pleased to describe a right 
for which the United States has often been 
ready to go to war and may yet some time do 
so. " Mr. Clay lost his temper," writes Mr. 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 89 

Adams a day or two later, " as lie generally 
does whenever this right of the British to navi- 
gate the Mississippi is discussed. He was ut- 
terly averse to admitting it as an equivalent for 
a stipulation securing the contested part of the 
fisheries. He said the more he heard of this 
[the right of fishing], the more convinced he 
was that it was of little or no value. He should 
be glad to get it if he could, but he was sure 
the British would not ultimately grant it. That 
the navigation of the Mississippi, on the other 
hand, was an object of immense importance, 
and he could see no sort of reason for granting 
it as an equivalent for the fisheries." Thus 
spoke the representative of the West. The New 
Englander — the son of the man whose exertions 
had been chiefly instrumental in originally ob- 
taining the grant of the Northeastern fishery 
privileges — naturally went to the other ex- 
treme. He thought " the British right of navi- 
gating the Mississippi to be as nothing, consid- 
ered as a grant from us. It was secured to them 
by the peace of 1783, they had enjoyed it at the 
commencement of the war, it had never been 
injurious in the slightest degree to our own 
people, and it appeared to [him] that the Brit- 
ish claim to it was just and equitable." Further 
he " believed the right to this navigation to be 
a very useless thing to the British. . . . But 



90 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

their national pride and honor were interested 
in it ; the government could not make a peace 
which would abandon it." The fisheries, how- 
ever, Mr. Adams regarded as one of the most 
inestimable and inalienable of American rights. 
It is evident that the United States could ill 
have spared either Mr. Adams or Mr. Clay from 
the negotiation, and the joinder of the two, 
however fraught with discomfort to themselves, 
well served substantial American interests. 

Mr. Adams thought the British perfidious, 
and suspected them of not entertaining any 
honest intention of concluding a peace. On 
December 12, after an exceedingly quarrelsome 
conference, he records his belief that the British 
have " insidiously kept open " two points, " for 
the sake of finally breaking off the negotiations 
and making all their other concessions proofs of 
their extreme moderation, to put upon us the 
blame of the rupture." 

On December 11 we find Mr. Clay ready 
" for a war three years longer," and anxious 
" to begin to play at brag " with the English- 
men. His colleagues, more complaisant or hav- 
ing less confidence in their own skill in that 
game, found it difficult to placate him ; . he 
" stalked to and fro across the chamber, repeat- 
ing five or six times, ' I will never sign a treaty 
upon the status ante helium with the Indian 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 91 

article. So help me God ! ' " The next day 
there was an angry controversy with the Eng- 
lishmen. The British troops had taken and held 
Moose Island in Passamaquoddy Bay, the right- 
ful ownership of which was in dispute. The title 
was to be settled by arbitrators. But the ques- 
tion, whether the British should restore posses- 
sion of the island pending the arbitration, 
aroused bitter discussion. " Mr. Goulburn and 
Dr. Adams (the Englishman) immediately took 
fire, and Goulburn lost all control of his temper. 
He has always in such cases," says the Diary, 
" a sort of convulsive agitation about him, and 
the tone in which he speaks is more insulting 
than the language which he uses." Mr. Bayard 
referred to the case of the Falkland Islands. 
u i ^^\^J ' Qyi a transport of rage), said Goul- 
burn, ' in that case we sent a fleet and troops 
and drove the fellows off ; and that is what we 
ought to have done in this case.' " Mr. J. Q. 
Adams, whose extensive and accurate informa- 
tion more than once annoyed his adversaries, 
stated that, as he remembered it, " the Spaniards 
in that case had driven the British off," — and 
Lord Gambler helped his blundering colleague 
out of the difficulty by suggesting a new sub- 
ject, much as the defeated heroes of the Iliad 
used to find happy refuge from death in a 
god-sent cloud of dust. It is amusing to read 



92 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

tliat in the midst of such scenes as these the 
show of courtesy was still maintained ; and on 
December 13 the Americans " all dined with 
the British Plenipotentiaries," though " the 
party was more than usually dull, stiff, and re- 
served." It was certainly forcing the spirit of 
good fellowship. The next day Mr. Clay noti- 
fied his colleagues that they were going " to 
make a damned bad treaty, and he did not know 
whether he would sign it or not ; " and Mr. 
Adams also said that he saw that the rest had 
made up their minds " at last to yield the fish- 
ery point," in which case he also could not sign 
the treaty. On the following day, however, the 
Americans were surprised by receiving a note 
from the British Commissioners, wherein they 
made the substantial concession of omitting 
from the treaty all reference to the fisheries and 
the navigation of the Mississippi. But Mr. 
Clay, on reading the note, " manifested some 
chagrin," and " still talked of breaking off the 
negotiation," even asking Mr. Adams to join 
him in so doing, which request, however, Mr. 
Adams very reasonably refused. Mr. Clay had 
also been anxious to stand out for a distinct 
abandonment of the alleged right of impress- 
ment ; but upon this point he found none of his 
colleagues ready to back him, and he was com- 
pelled perforce to yield. Agreement was there- 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 93 

fore now substantially reached ; a few minor 
matters were settled, and on December 24, 1814, 
the treaty was signed by all the eight nego- 
tiators. 

It was an astonishing as well as a happy 
result. Never, probably, in the history of di- 
plomacy has concord been produced from such 
discordant elements as had been brought to- 
gether in Ghent. Dissension seemed to have 
become the mother of amity ; and antipathies 
were mere preliminaries to a good understand- 
ing ; in diplomacy as in marriage it had worked 
well to begin with a little aversion. But, in 
truth, this consummation was largely due to 
what had been going on in the English Cab- 
inet. At the outset Lord Castlereagh had been 
very unwilling to conclude peace, and his dis- 
position had found expression in the original 
intolerable terms prepared by the British Com- 
missioners. But Lord Liverpool had been 
equally solicitous on the other side, and was 
said even to have tendered his resignation to 
the Prince Regent, if an accommodation should 
not be effected. His endeavors were fortunately 
aided by events in Europe. Pending the nego- 
tiations Lord Castlereagh went on a diplomatic 
errand to Vienna, and there fell into such threat- 
ening discussions with the Emperor of Kussia 
and the King of Prussia, that he thought it 



94 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

prudent to have done with the American war, 
and wrote home pacific advices. Hence, at last, 
came such concessions as satisfied the Amer- 
icans. 

The treaty established " a firm and universal 
peace between his Britannic Majesty and the 
United States." Each party was to restore all 
captured territory, except that the islands of 
which the title was in dispute were to remain 
in the occupation of the party holding them at 
the time of ratification until that title should be 
settled by commissioners ; provision was made 
also for the determination of all the open ques- 
tions of boundary by sundry boards of commis- 
sioners ; each party was to make peace with 
the Indian allies of the other. Such were, in 
substance, the only points touched upon by this 
document. Of the many subjects mooted be- 
tween the negotiators scarcely any had sur- 
vived the fierce contests which had been waged 
concerning them. The whole matter of the 
navigation of the Mississippi, access to that 
river, and a road through American territory, 
had been dropped by the British ; while the 
Americans had been well content to say no- 
thing of the Northeastern fisheries, which they 
regarded as still their own. The disarmament 
on the lakes and along the Canadian border, 
and the neutralization of a strip of Indian 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 95 

territory, were yielded by the English. The 
Americans were content to have nothing said 
about impressment ; nor was any one of the 
many illegal rights exercised by England for- 
mally abandoned. The Americans satisfied 
themselves with the reflection that circum- 
stances had rendered these points now only mat- 
ters of abstract principle, since the pacification 
of Europe had removed all opportunities and 
temptations for England to persist in her pre- 
vious objectionable courses. For the future it 
was hardly to be feared that she would again 
undertake to pursue a policy against which 
it was evident that the United States were will- 
ing to conduct a serious war. There was, how- 
ever, no provision for indemnification. 

Upon a fair consideration, it must be ad- 
mitted that though the treaty was silent upon 
all the points which the United States had 
made war for the purpose of enforcing, yet the 
country had every reason to be gratified with 
the result of the negotiation. The five Com- 
missioners had done themselves ample credit. 
They had succeeded in agreeing with each 
other ; they had avoided any fracture of a ne- 
gotiation which, up to the very end, seemed 
almost daily on the verge of being broken off 
in anger ; they had managed really to lose no- 
thing, in spite of the fact that their side had 



96 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

had decidedly the worst of the struggle. They 
had negotiated much more successfully than the 
armies of their countrymen had fought. The 
Marquis of Wellesley said, in the House of 
Lords, that " in his opinion the American 
Commissioners had shown a most astonishing 
superiority over the British during the whole 
of the correspondence." One cannot help wish- 
ing that the battle of New Orleans had taken 
place a little earlier, or that the negotiation 
had fallen a little later, so that news of that 
brilliant event could have reached the ears of 
the insolent Englishmen at Ghent, who had 
for three months been enjoying the malicious 
pleasure of lending to the Americans English 
newspapers containing accounts of American 
misfortunes. But that fortunate battle was not 
fought until a few days after the eight Commis- 
sioners had signed their compact. It is an in- 
teresting illustration of the slowness of commu- 
nication which our forefathers had to endure, 
that the treaty crossed the Atlantic in a sail- 
ing ship in time to travel through much of the 
country simultaneously with the report of this 
farewell victory. Two such good pieces of 
news coming together set the people wild with 
delight. Even on the dry pages of Niles's 
"Weekly Register" occurs the triumphant para- 
graph : " Who would not be an American ? 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 97 

Long live tlie Republic ! All hail ! last asylum 
of oppressed humanity ! Peace is signed in the 
arms of victory ! " It was natural that most 
of the ecstasy shoidd be manifested concerning 
the military triumph, and that the mass of the 
people should find more pleasure in glorifying 
General Jackson than in exalting the Commis- 
sioners. The value of their work, however, was 
well proved by the voice of Great Britain. In 
the London " Times " of December 30 aj)peared 
a most angry tirade against the treaty, with 
bitter sneers at those who called the peace an 
" honorable " one. England, it was said, " had 
attempted to force her principles on America, 
and had failed." Foreign powers would say 
that the English " had retired from the combat 
with the stripes yet bleeding on their backs, 
— with the recent defeats at Plattsburgh and 
on Lake Champlain unavenged." The most 
gloomy prognostications of further wars with 
America when her naval power should have 
waxed much greater were indulged. The loss 
of prestige in Europe, "the probable loss of our 
trans- Atlantic provinces," were among the re- 
sults to be anticipated from this treaty into 
which the English Commissioners had been be- 
guiled by the Americans. These latter were 
reviled with an abuse which was really the 
highest compliment. The family name of Mr. 



98 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

Adams gained no small access of distinction in 
England from this business. 

After the conclusion of the treaty Mr. Adams 
went to Paris, and remained there until the mid- 
dle of May, 1815, thus having the good fortune 
to witness the return of Napoleon and a great 
part of the events of the famous ''hundred days." 
On May 26 he arrived in London, where there 
awaited him, in the hands of the Barings, his 
commission as Envoy Extraordinary and Minis- 
ter Plenipotentiary to Great Britain. His first 
duty was, in connection with Mr. Clay and Mr. 
Gallatin, to negotiate a treaty of commerce, in 
which business he again met the same three 
British Commissioners by whom the negotia- 
tions at Ghent had been conducted, of whose 
abilities the government appeared to entertain 
a better opinion than the Marquis of Welles- 
ley had expressed. This negotiation had been 
brought so far towards conclusion by his col- 
leagues before his own arrival that Mr. Adams 
had little to do in assisting them to complete it. 
This little having been done, they departed and 
left him as Minister at the Court of St. James. 
Thus he fulfilled Washington's prophecy, by 
reaching the highest rank in the American dip- 
lomatic service. 

Of his stay in Great Britain little need be 
said. He had few duties of importance to per- 



YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY 99 

form. The fisheries, the right of impressment, 
and the taking away and selling of slaves by 
British naval officers during the late war, 
formed the subjects of many interviews be- 
tween him and Lord Castlereagh, without, how- 
ever, any definite results being reached. But 
he succeeded in obtaining, towards the close of 
his stay, some slight remission of the severe re- 
strictions placed by England upon our trade 
with her West Indian colonies. His relations 
with a cabinet in which the principles of Castle- 
reagh and Canning predominated could hardly 
be cordial, yet he seems to have been treated 
with perfect civility. Indeed, he was not a 
man whom it was easy even for an Englishman 
to insult. He remarks of Castlereagh, after 
one of his first interviews with that nobleman : 
" His deportment is sufficiently graceful, and 
his person is handsome. His manner was cold, 
but not absolutely repulsive." Before he left 
he had the pleasure of having Mr. Canning 
specially seek acquaintance with him. He met, 
of course, many distinguished and many agree- 
able persons during his residence, and partook 
of many festivities, especially of numerous civic 
banquets at which toasts were formally given in 
the dullest English fashion and he was obliged 
to display his capacity for " table-cloth oratory," 
as he called it, more than was agreeable to him. 



L D^C 



100 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

He was greatly bored by these solemn and pom- 
pous feedings. Partly in order to escape them 
he took a house at Ealing, and lived there during 
the greater part of his stay in England. " One 
of the strongest reasons for my remaining out of 
town," he writes, "is to escape the frequency 
of invitations at late hours, which consume so 
much precious time, and with the perpetually 
mortifying consciousness of inability to return 
the civility in the same manner." The repub- 
lican simplicity, not to say poverty, forced upon 
American representatives abroad, was a very 
different matter in the censorious and un- 
friendly society of London from what it had 
been at the kindly disposed Court of St. Peters- 
burg. The relationship between the mother 
country and the quondam colonies, especially 
at that juncture, was such as to render social 
life intolerably trying to an under-paid Ameri- 
can minister. 

Mr. Adams remained in England until June 
15, 1817, when he sailed from Cowes, closing 
forever his long and honorable diplomatic ca- 
reer, and bidding his last farewell to Europe. 
He returned home to take the post of Secretary 
of State in the cabinet of James Monroe, then 
lately inaugurated as President of the United 
States. 



CHAPTER II 

SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 

From the capitals of Russia and Great Brit- 
ain to the capital of the United States was 
a striking change. Washington, in its early 
struggle for existence, was so unattractive a 
spot, that foreigners must have been at a loss 
to discover the principle which had governed 
the selection. It combined all the ugliness with 
all the discomfort of an unprosperous frontier 
settlement on an ill-chosen site. What must 
European diplomats have thought of a capital 
city where snakes two feet long invaded gen- 
tlemen's drawing-rooms, and a carriage, bring- 
ing home the guests from a ball, could be upset 
by the impenetrable depth of quagmire at the 
very door of a foreign minister's residence. A 
description of the city given by Mr. Mills, a 
Representative from Massachusetts, in 1815, is 
pathetic in its unutterable horror : — 

"It is impossible [he writes] for me to describe 
to you my feelings on entering this miserable desert, 
this scene of desolation and horror. . . . My antici- 



102 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

pations were almost infinitely short of the reality, and 
I can truly say that the first appearance of this seat 
of the national government has produced in me no- 
thing but absolute loathing and disgust." 

If the place wore such a dreadful aspect to 
the simple denizen of a New England country 
town, what must it have seemed to those who 
were familiar with London and Paris ? To 
them the social life must have been scarcely 
less dreary than the rest of the surroundings. 
Accordingly, with this change of scene, the 
Diary, so long a record of festivities some- 
times dull and formal, but generally collecting 
interesting and distinguished persons, ceases 
almost wholly to refer to topics of society. 
Yet, of course, even the foul streets could not 
prevent people from occasionally meeting to- 
gether. There were simple tea-drinkings, stu- 
pid weekly dinners at the President's, infre- 
quent receptions by Mrs. Monroe, card-parties 
and conversation-parties, which at the British 
minister's were very " elegant," and at the 
French minister's were more gay. Mons. de 
Neuville, at his dinners, used to puzzle and 
astound the plain-living Yankees by serving 
dishes of " turkeys without bones, and pud- 
dings in the form of fowls, fresh cod disguised 
like a salad, and celery like oysters ; " further, 
he scandalized some and demoralized others by 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 103 

having dancing on Saturday evenings, wliicli 
the New England ladies had been " educated to 
consider as holy time." Mr. and Mrs. Adams 
used to give weekly parties on Tuesday even- 
ings, and apparently many persons stood not a 
little in awe of these entertainments and of 
the givers of them, by reason of their superior 
familiarity with the manners and customs of 
the best society of Europe. Mrs. Adams was, 
"on the whole, a very pleasant and agreeable 
woman ; but the Secretary [had] no talent to 
entertain a mixed company, either by conver- 
sation or manners ; " thus writes this same Mr. 
Mills, whose sentiments towards Mr. Adams 
were those of respect rather than of personal 
liking. The favorite dissipation then consisted 
in card-playing, and the stakes were too often 
out of all just proportion to the assets of the 
gamesters. At one time Mr. Clay was reputed 
to have lost f 8,000, an amount so considerable 
for him as to weigh upon his mind to the man- 
ifest detriment of his public functions. But 
sometimes the gentlemen resident in the capital 
met for purposes less innocent than Saturday 
evening cotillons, or even than extravagant bet- 
ting at the card-table, and stirred the dulness 
of society by a duel. Mr. Adams tells of one 
affair of this sort, fought between ex-Senator 
Mason, of Virginia, and his cousin, wherein the 



104 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

weapons used were muskets, and the distance 
was only six paces. Mason was killed ; his 
cousin was wounded, and only by a lucky ac- 
cident escaped with his life. Mr. Adams had 
little time and less taste for either the amuse- 
ments or the dangers thus offered to him ; he 
preferred to go to bed in good season, to get up 
often long before daybreak, and to labor assid- 
uously the livelong day. His favorite exercise 
was swimming in the Potomac, where he accom- 
plished feats which would have been extraor- 
dinary for a young and athletic man. 

The most important, perplexing, and time- 
consuming duties then called for by the condi- 
tion of public affairs happened to fall within 
Mr. Adams's department. Monroe's adminis- 
tration has been christened the " era of good 
feeling ; " and, so far as political divisions 
among the people at large were concerned, this 
description is correct enough. There were no 
great questions of public policy dividing the 
nation. There could hardly be said to be two 
political parties. With the close of the war 
the malcontent Federalists had lost the only 
substantial principle upon which they had been 
able vigorously to oppose the administration, 
and as a natural consequence the party rapidly 
shrank to insignificant proportions, and became 
of hardly more importance than were the Jac- 






SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 105 

obltes in England after their last hopes had 
been quenched by the failure of the Rebellion 
of '45. The Federalist faith, like Jacobitism, 
lingered in a few neighborhoods, and was main- 
tained by a few old families, who managed to 
associate it with a sense of their own pride and 
dignity ; but as an effective opposition or in- 
fluential party organization it was effete, and 
no successor was rising out of its ruins. In a 
broad way, therefore, there was political har- 
mony to a very remarkable degree. 

But among individuals there was by no means 
a prevailing good feeling. Not held together by 
the pressure exerted by the antagonism of a 
strong hostile force, the prominent men of the 
Cabinet and in Congress were busily employed 
in promoting their own individual interests. 
Having no great issues with which to identify 
themselves, and upon which they could openly 
and honorably contend for the approval of the 
nation, their only means for securing their re- 
spective private ends lay in secretly overreach- 
ing and supplanting each other. Infinite skill 
was exerted by each to inveigle his rival into 
an unpopular position or a compromising light. 
By a series of precedents Mr. Adams, as Secre- 
tary of State, appeared most prominent as a 
candidate for the succession to the Presidency. 
But Mr. Crawford, in the Treasury Department, 



106 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

had been very near obtaining the nomination in- 
stead of Monroe, and he was firmly resolved to 
secure it so soon as Mr. Monroe's eight years 
should have elapsed. He, therefore, finding 
much leisure left upon his hands by the not 
very exacting business of his office, devoted his 
ingenuity to devising schemes for injuring the 
prestige of Mr. Adams. Mr. Clay also had 
been greatly disappointed that he had not been 
summoned to be Secretary of State, and so 
made heir apparent. His personal enmity was 
naturally towards Mr. Monroe; his political 
enmity necessarily also included Mr. Adams, 
whose appointment he had privately sought to 
prevent. He therefore at once set himself as- 
siduously to oppose and thwart the administra- 
tion, and to make it unsuccessful and unpopu- 
lar. That Clay was in the main and upon all 
weighty questions an honest statesman and a 
real patriot must be admitted, but just at this 
period no national crisis called his nobler qual- 
ities into action, and his course was largely in- 
fluenced by selfish considerations. It was not 
long before Mr. Calhoun also entered the lists, 
though in a manner less discreditable to him- 
self, personally, than were the resources of 
Crawford and Clay. The daily narrations and 
comments of Mr. Adams display and explain 
in a manner highly instructive, if not altogether 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 107 

agreeable, the ambitions and the manoeuvres, 
the hollow alliances and unworthy intrigues, 
not only of these three, but also of many other 
estimable gentlemen then in political life. The 
difference between those days and our own 
seems not so great as the laudatores temporis 
acti are wont to proclaim it. The elaborate 
machinery which has since been constructed 
was then unknown ; rivals relied chiefly upon 
their own astuteness and the aid of a few per- 
sonal friends and adherents for carrying on con- 
tests and attaining ends which are now sought 
by vastly more complex methods. What the 
stage-coach of that period was to the railroads 
of to-day, or what the hand-loom was to our 
great cotton mills, such also was the political 
intriguing of cabinet ministers, senators, and 
representatives to our present party machinery. 
But the temper was no better, honor was no 
keener, the sense of public duty was little more 
disinterested then than now. One finds no 
serious traces of vulgar financial dishonesty re- 
corded in these pages, in which Mr. Adams has 
handed down the political life of the second and 
third decades of our century with a photographic 
accuracy. But one does not see a much higher 
level of faithfulness to ideal standards in polit- 
ical life than now exists. 

As has been said, it so happened that in Mr. 



108 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

Monroe's administration the heaviest burden of 
labor and responsibility rested upon Mr. Adams ; 
the most important and most perplexing ques- 
tions fell within his department. Domestic 
breaches had been healed, but foreign breaches 
gaped with threatening jaws. War with Spain 
seemed imminent. Her South American colonies 
were then waging their contest for independence, 
and naturally looked to the late successfid rebels 
of the northern continent for acts of neighborly 
sympathy and good fellowship. Their efforts to 
obtain official recognition and the exchange of 
ministers with the United States were eager and 
persistent. Privateers fitted out at Baltimore 
gave the State Department scarcely less cause 
for anxiety than the shipbuilders of Liverpool 
gave to the English Cabinet in 1863-64. These 
perplexities, as is well known, caused the passage 
of the first " Neutrality Act," which first formu- 
lated and has since served to establish the 
principle of international obligation in such 
matters, and has been the basis of all subsequent 
legislation upon the subject not only in this 
country but also in Great Britain. 

The European powers, impelled by a natural 
distaste for rebellion by colonists, and also be- 
lieving that Spain would in time prevail over 
the insurgents, turned a deaf ear to South Amer- 
ican agents. But in the United States it was 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 109 

different. Here it was anticipated that the re- 
volted communities were destined to win ; Mr. 
Adams records this as his own opinion ; besides 
which there was also a natural sympathy felt 
by our people in such a conflict in their own 
quarter of the globe. Nevertheless, in many 
anxious cabinet discussions, the President and 
the Secretary of State established the policy of 
reserve and caution. Rebels against an estab- 
lished government are like plaintiffs in litiga- 
tion ; the burden of proof is upon them, and the 
neutral nations who are a sort of quasi-jurors' 
must not commit themselves to a decision prema- 
turely. The grave and inevitable difficulties 
besettino" the administration in this matter were 
seriously enhanced by the conduct of Mr. Clay. 
Seeking nothing so eagerly as an opportunity to 
harass the government, he could have found none 
more to his taste than this question of South 
American recognition. His enthusiastic and 
rhetorical temperament rejoiced in such a topic 
for his luxuriant oratory, and he lauded freedom 
and abused the administration with a force 
of expression far from gratifying to the respon- 
sible heads of government in their troublesome 
task. 

Apart from these matters the United States 
had direct disputes of a threatening character 
pending with Spain concerning the boundaries 



110 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

of Louisiana. Naturally enough boundary lines 
in the half explored wilderness of this vast con- 
tinent were not then marked with that indis- 
putable accuracy which many generations and 
much bloodshed had achieved in Europe ; and 
of all uncertain boundaries that of Louisiana 
was the most so. Area enough to make two or 
three States, more or less, might or might not 
be included therein. Such doubts had proved 
a ready source of quarrel, which could hardly 
be assuaged by General Jackson marching about 
in unquestionable Spanish territory, seizing 
towns and hanging people after his lawless, 
ignorant, energetic fashion. Mr. Adams's chief 
labor, therefore, was by no means of a promis- 
ing character, being nothing less difficult than 
to conclude a treaty between enraged Spain and 
the rapacious United States, where there was so 
much wrong and so much right on both sides, 
and such a wide obscure realm of doubt between 
the two that an amicable agreement might well 
seem not only beyond expectation but beyond 
hope. 

Many and various also were the incidental 
obstacles in Mr. Adams's way. Not the least 
lay in the ability of Don Onis, the Spanish 
Minister, an ambassador well selected for his 
important task and whom the American thus 
described : — 



\ 



\ 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 111 

"Cold, calculating, wily, always commanding his 
own temper, proud because he is a Spaniard, but sup- 
ple and cunning, accommodating the tone of his pre- 
tensions precisely to the degree of endurance of his 
opponent, bold and overbearing to the utmost extent 
to which it is tolerated, careless of what he asserts 
or how grossly it is proved to be unfounded, his 
morality appears to be that of the Jesuits as exposed 
by Pascal. He is laborious, vigilant, and ever at- 
tentive to his duties ; a man of business and of the 
world." 

Fortunately this so dangerous negotiator was 
hardly less anxious than Mr. Adams to conclude 
a treaty. Yet he, too, had his grave difficulties 
to encounter. Spanish arrogance had not de- 
clined with the decline of Spanish strength, and 
the concessions demanded from that ancient 
monarchy by the upstart republic seemed at 
once exasperating and humiliating. The career 
ofi Jackson in Florida, while it exposed the 
weajliness of Spain, also sorely wounded her 
pride!'. Nor could the grandees, three thousand 
miles aw:ay, form so accurate an opinion of the 
true conditilon and prospects of affairs as could 
Don Onis upon^ this side of the water. One day, 
begging Mr. Ada.ms to meet him upon a question 
of boundary, " he in.sisted much upon the infinite 
pains he had taken v'j^o prevail upon his govern- 
ment to come to terms of accommodation," and 

/ 

1 

V 

) 



112 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

pathetically declared tliat " the King's Council 
was composed of such ignorant and stupid 
nigauds, grandees of Spain, and priests," that 
Mr. Adams " could have no conception of their 
obstinacy and imbecility." 

Other difficulties in Mr. Adams's way were 
such as ought not to have been encountered. 
The only substantial concession which he was 
willing to make was in accepting the Sabine in- 
stead of the Rio del Norte as the southwestern 
boundary of Louisiana. But no sooner did 
rumors of this possible yielding get abroad 
than he was notified that Mr. Clay "would 
take ground against " any treaty embodying it. 
From Mr. Crawford a more dangerous and in- 
sidious policy was to be feared. Presumably he 
would be well pleased either to see Mr. Adams 
fail altogether in the negotiation, or to see him 
conclude a treaty which would be in some es; 
sential feature odious to the people. 

"That all his conduct [wrote Mr. Adams] is 
governed by his views to the Presidency, as f}.re ulti- 
mate successor to Mr. Monroe, and that iiis hopes 
depend upon a result unfavorable to *Jhe success or 
at least to the popularity of the Afclministration, is 
perfectly clear. . . . His talent ipj intrigue. And as 
it is in the foreign affairs that, the success or failure 
of the Administration will be most conspicuous, and 
as their success would jDromote.- the reputation and in- 



r 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 113 

fluence, and their failure would lead to the disgrace 
of the Secretary of State, Crawford's personal views 
centre in the ill-success of the Administration in its 
foreign relations ; and, perhaps unconscious of his 
own motives, he will always be impelled to throw 
obstacles in its way, and to bring upon the Depart- 
ment of State especially any feeling of public dissat- 
isfaction that he can, . . . and although himself a 
member of the Administration, he perceives every 
day more clearly that his only prospect of success 
hereafter depends upon the failure of the Adminis- 
tration by measures of which he must take care to 
make known his disapprobation." 

President Monroe was profoundly anxious for 
the consummation of the treaty, and though for 
a time he was in perfect accord with Mr. Adams, 
yet as the Spanish minister gradually drew 
nearer and nearer to a full compliance with the 
American demands, Monroe began to fear that 
the Secretary would carry his unyielding habit 
too far, and by insistence upon extreme points 
which might well enough be given up, would 
allow the country to drift into war. 

Fortunately, as it turned out, Mr. Adams was 
not afraid to take the whole responsibility of 
success or failure upon his own shoulders, show- 
ing indeed a high and admirable courage and 
constancy amid such grave perplexities, in which 
it seemed that all his future political fortunes 



114 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

were involved. He caused the proffered media- 
tion of Great Britain to be rejected. He availed 
himself of no aid save only the services of 
Mons. de Neuville, the French minister, who 
took a warm interest in the negotiation, ex- 
postulated and argued constantly with Don 
Onis and sometimes with Mr. Adams, served as 
a channel of communication and carried mes- 
sages, propositions, and denials, which could 
better come filtered through a neutral go-be- 
tween than pass direct from principal to prin- 
cipal. In fact, Mr. Adams needed no other kind 
of aid except just this which was so readily 
furnished by the civil and obliging Frenchman. 
As if he had been a mathematician solving a 
problem in dynamics, he seemed to have mea- 
sured the precise line to which the severe pres- 
sure of Spanish difficulties would compel Don 
Onis to advance. This line he drew sharply, 
and taking his stand upon it in the beginning 
he made no important alterations in it to the 
end. Day by day the Spaniard would reluc- 
tantly approach toward him at one point or an- 
other, solemnly protesting that he could not 
make another move, by argument and entreaty 
urging, almost imploring, Mr. Adams in turn to 
advance and meet him. But Mr. Adams stood 
rigidly still, sometimes not a little vexed by the 
other's lingering manoeuvres, and actually once 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 115 

saying to the courtly Spaniard that he " was 
so wearied out with the discussion that it had 
become nauseous ; " and, again, that he " really 
could discuss no longer, and had given it up in 
despair." Yet all the while he was never wholly 
free from anxiety concerning the accuracy of 
his calculations as to how soon the Don might 
on his side also come to a final stand. Many a 
tedious and alarming pause there was, but after 
each halt progress was in time renewed. At 
last the consummation was reached, and except 
in the aforementioned matter of the Sabine 
boundary no concession even in details had been 
made by Mr. Adams. The United States was 
to receive Florida, and in return only agreed to 
settle the disputed claims of certain of her cit- 
izens against Spain to an amount not to exceed 
^ve million dollars ; while the claims of Spanish 
subjects against the United States were wholly 
expunged. The western boundary was so es- 
tablished as to secure for this country the much- 
coveted outlet to the shores of the " South Sea," 
as the Pacific Ocean was called, south of the 
Columbia River ; the line also was run along the 
southern banks of the Red and Arkansas rivers, 
leaving all the islands to the United States and 
precluding Spain from the right of navigation. 
Mr. Adams had achieved a great triumph. 
On February 22, 1819, tlie two negotiators 



116 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

signed and sealed the counterparts of the treaty. 
Mr. Adams notes that it is " perhaps the most 
important day of my life," and justly called it 
" a great epoch in our history." Yet on the next 
day the " Washington City Gazette " came out 
with a strong condemnation of the Sabine con- 
cession, and expressed the hope that the Senate 
would not agree to it. " This paragraph," said 
Mr. Adams, " comes directly or indirectly from 
Mr. Clay." But the paragraph did no harm, 
for on the following day the treaty was con- 
firmed by an unanimous vote of the Senate. 

It was not long, however, before the pleasure 
justly derivable from the completion of this 
great labor was cruelly dashed. It appeared 
that certain enormous grants of land, made by 
the Spanish king to three of his nobles, and 
which were supposed to be annulled by the 
treaty, so that the territory covered by them 
would become the public property of the United 
States, bore date earlier than had been under- 
stood, and for this reason would, by the terms 
of the treaty, be left in full force. This was a 
serious matter, and such steps as were still pos- 
sible to set it right were promptly taken. Mr. 
Adams appealed to Don On is to state in writing 
that he himself had understood that these grants 
were to be annulled, and that such had been the 
intention of the treaty. The Spaniard replied 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 117 

in a sliape imperfectly satisfactory. He shuf- 
fled, evaded, and laid himself open to suspicion 
of unfair dealing, though the charge could not 
be regarded as fully proved against him. Mr. 
Adams, while blaming himself for carelessness 
in not having more closely examined original 
documents, yet felt " scarce a doubt " that Onis 
" did intend by artifice to cover the grants 
while we were under the undoubting impres- 
sion they were annulled ; " and he said to M. de 
Neuville, concerning this dark transaction, that 
"it was not the ingenious device of a public 
minister, but ' une fourherie de ScapinJ " Be- 
fore long the rumor got abroad in the public 
prints in the natural shape of a " malignant 
distortion," and Mr. Adams was compelled to 
see with chagrin his supposed brilliant success 
threatening to turn actually to his grave dis- 
credit by reason of this unfortunate oversight. 

What might have been the result had the 
treaty been ratified by Spain can only be sur- 
mised. But it so befell — happily enough for 
the United States and for Mr. Adams, as it 
afterwards turned out — that the Spanish gov- 
ernment refused to ratify. The news was, how- 
ever, that they would forthwith dispatch a new 
minister to explain this refusal and to renew 
negotiations. 

For his own private part Mr. Adams strove 



118 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

to endure this buffet of unkindly fortune witli 
tliat unflincliing and stubborn temper, slightly 
dashed with bitterness, which stood him in good 
stead in many a political trial during his hard- 
fighting career. But in his official capacity he 
had also to consider and advise what it be- 
hooved the administration to do under the cir- 
cumstances. The feeling was widespread that 
the United States ought to possess Florida, and 
that Spain had paltered with us long enough. 
More than once in cabinet meetings during the 
negotiation the Secretary of State, who was al- 
ways prone to strong measures, had expressed 
a wish for an act of Congress authorizing the 
Executive to take forcible possession of Florida 
and of Galveston in the event of Spain refusing 
to satisfy the reasonable demands made upon 
her. Now, stimulated by indignant feeling, his 
prepossession in favor of vigorous action was 
greatly strengthened, and his counsel was that 
the United States should prepare at once to 
take and hold the disputed territory, and indeed 
some undisputed Spanish territory also. But 
Mr. Monroe and the rest of the Cabinet pre- 
ferred a milder course ; and France and Great 
Britain ventured to express to this country a 
hope that no violent action would be precipi- 
tately taken. So the matter lay by for a while, 
awaiting the coming of the promised envoy 
from Spain. 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 119 

At this time the great question of the admis- 
sion of Missouri into the Union of States be- 
gan to agitate Congress and the nation. Mr. 
Adams, deeply absorbed in the perplexing af- 
fairs of his department, into which this domestic 
problem did not enter, was at first careless of it. 
His ideas concerning the matter, he wrote, were 
a " chaos ; " but it was a " chaos " into which 
his interest in public questions soon compelled 
him to bring order. In so doing he for the first 
time fairly exposes his intense repulsion for 
slavery, his full appreciation of the irrepres- 
sible character of the conflict between the slave 
and the free populations, and the sure tendency 
of that conflict to a dissolution of the Union. 
Few men at that day read the future so clearly. 
While dissolution was generally regarded as a 
threat not really intended to be carried out, and 
compromises were supposed to be amply suffi- 
cient to control the successive emergencies, the 
underlying moral force of the anti-slavery move- 
ment acting against the encroaching necessities 
of the slave-holding communities constituted an 
element and involved possibilities which Mr. 
Adams, from his position of observation outside 
the immediate controversy, noted with foresee- 
ing accuracy. He discerned in passing events 
the " title-page to a great tragic volume ; " and 
he predicted that the more or less distant but 



120 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

sure end must be an attempt to dissolve the 
Union. His own position was distinctly defined 
from the outset, and his strong feelings were 
vigorously expressed. He beheld with profound 
regret the superiority of the slave-holding party 
in ability ; he remarked sadly how greatly they 
excelled in debating power their lukewarm op- 
ponents ; he was filled with indignation against 
the Northern men of Southern principles. " Sla- 
very," he wrote, " is the great and foul stain 
upon the North American Union, and it is a 
contemplation worthy of the most exalted soul 
whether its total abolition is or is not practica- 
ble." " A life devoted to " the emancipation 
problem " would be nobly spent or sacrificed." 
He talks with much acerbity of expression about 
the " slave-drivers," and the " flagrant image of 
human inconsistency " presented by men who 
had " the Declaration of Independence on their 
lips and the merciless scourge of slavery in their 
hands." " Never," he says, " since human sen- 
timents and human conduct were influenced by 
human speech was there a theme for eloquence 
like the free side of this question. . . . Oh, if 
but one man could arise with a genius capable 
of comprehending, and an utterance capable of 
communicating those eternal truths that belong 
to this question, to lay bare in all its nakedness 
that outrage upon the goodness of God, human 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 121 

slavery ; now is the time and this is the occa- 
sion, upon which such a man would perform the 
duties of an angel upon earth." Before the 
Abolitionists had begun to preach their great 
crusade this was strong and ardent language for 
a statesman's pen. Nor were these exceptional 
passages; there is much more of the same sort 
at least equally forcible. Mr. Adams notes an 
interesting remark made to him by Calhoun at 
this time. The great Southern chief, less pre- 
scient than Mr. Adams, declared that he did 
not think that the slavery question " would pro- 
duce a dissolution of the Union ; but if it should, 
the South would be from necessity compelled to 
form an alliance offensive and defensive with 
Great Britain." 

Concerning a suggestion that civil war might 
be preferable to the extension of slavery beyond 
the Mississippi, Adams said : " This is a ques- 
tion between the rights of human nature and 
the Constitution of the United States " — a 
form of stating the case which leaves no doubt 
concerning his ideas of the intrinsic right and 
wrong in the matter. His own notion was that 
slavery could not be got rid of within the Union, 
but that the only method would be dissolution, 
after which he trusted that the course of events 
would in time surely lead to reorganization 
upon the basis of universal freedom for all. 



122 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

He was not a disunionist in any sense, yet it is 
evident that his strong tendency and inclination 
were to regard emancipation as a weight in the 
scales heavier than union, if it should ever come 
to the point of an option between the two. 

Strangely enough the notion of a forcible 
retention of the slave States within the Union 
does not seem to have been at this time a sub- 
stantial element of consideration. Mr. Adams 
acknowledged that there was no way at once of 
preserving the Union and escaping from the 
present emergency save through the door of 
compromise. He maintained strenuously the 
power of Congress to prohibit slavery in the 
Territories, and denied that either Congress or 
a state government could establish slavery as a 
new institution in any State in which it was not 
already existing and recognized by law. 

This agitation of the slavery question made 
itself felt in a way personally interesting to Mr. 
Adams, by the influence it was exerting upon 
men's feelings concerning the still pending and 
dubious treaty with Spain. The South became 
anxious to lay hands upon the Floridas and 
upon as far-reaching an area as possible in the 
direction of Mexico, in order to carve it up into 
more slave States ; the North, on the other hand, 
no longer cared very eagerly for an extension of 
the Union upon its southern side. Sectional in- 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 123 

terests were getting to be more considered than 
national. Mr. Adams could not but recognize 
that in the great race for the Presidency, in 
which he could hardly help being a competitor, 
the chief advantage which he seemed to have 
won when the Senate unanimously ratified the 
Spanish treaty, had almost wholly vanished 
since that treaty had been repudiated by Spain 
and was now no longer desired by a large pro- 
portion of his own countrymen. 

Matters stood thus when the new Spanish 
envoy, Vives, arrived. Other elements, which 
there is not space to enumerate here, besides 
those referred to, now entering newly into the 
state of affairs, further reduced the improba- 
bility of agreement almost to hopelessness. Mr. 
Adams, despairing of any other solution than 
a forcible seizure of Florida, to which he had 
long been far from averse, now visibly relaxed 
his efforts to meet the Spanish negotiator. Per- 
haps no other course could have been more 
effectual in securing success than this obvious 
indifference to it. In the prevalent condition 
of public feeling and of his own sentiments Mr. 
Adams easily assumed towards General Vives a 
decisive bluntness, not altogether consonant to 
the habits of diplomacy, and manifested an un- 
changeable stubbornness which left no room for 
discussion. His position was simply that Spain 



124 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

might make such a treaty as the United States 
demanded, or might take the consequences of 
her refusal. His dogged will wore out the 
Spaniard's pride, and after a fruitless delay the 
King and Cortes ratified the treaty in its ori- 
ginal shape, with the important addition of an 
explicit annulment of the land grants. It was 
again sent in to the Senate, and in sj)ite of the 
" continued, systematic, and laborious effort" of 
" Mr. Clay and his partisans to make it unpop- 
ular," it was ratified by a handsome majority, 
there being against it " only four votes — Brown, 
of Louisiana, who married a sister of Clay's 
wife ; Kichard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, against 
his own better judgment, from mere political 
subserviency to Clay ; Williams, of Tennessee, 
from party impulses connected with hatred of 
General Jackson ; and Trimble, of Ohio, from 
some maggot of the brain." Two years had 
elapsed since the former ratification, and no 
little patience had been required to await so 
long the final achievement of a success so ar- 
dently longed for, once apparently gained, and 
anon so cruelly thwarted. But the triumph was 
rather enhanced than diminished by all this dif- 
ficulty and delay. A long and checkered his- 
tory, wherein appeared infinite labor, many a 
severe trial of temper and hard test of moral 
courage, bitter disappointment, ignoble artifices 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 125 

of opponents, ungenerous opposition growing 
out of unworthy personal motives at home, was 
now at last closed by a chapter which appeared 
only the more gratifying by contrast with what 
had gone before. Mr. Adams recorded, with 
less of exultation than might have been pardon- 
able, the utter discomfiture of " all the calcida- 
tors of my downfall by the Spanish negotiation," 
and reflected cheerfully that he had been left 
with " credit rather augmented than impaired 
by the result," — credit not in excess of his de- 
serts. Many years afterwards, in changed cir- 
cumstances, an outcry was raised against the 
agreement which was arrived at concerning the 
southwestern boundary of Louisiana. Most 
unjustly it was declared that Mr. Adams had 
sacrificed a portion of the territory of the United 
States. But political motives were too plainly 
to be discerned in these tardy criticisms; and 
though General Jackson saw fit, for personal 
reasons, to animadvert severely upon the clause 
establishing this boundary line, yet there was 
abundant evidence to show not only that he, 
like almost everybody else, had been greatly 
pleased with it at the time, but even that he 
had then upon consultation expressed a deliber- 
ate and special approval. 

The same day, February 22, 1821, closed, 
says Mr. Adams, " two of the most memorable 



126 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

transactions of my life." That he should speak 
thus of the exchange of ratifications of the 
Spanish treaty is natural; but the other so 
" memorable transaction " may not appear of 
equal magnitude. It was the sending in to Con- 
gress of his report upon weights and measures. 
This was one of those vast labors, involving 
tenfold more toil than all the negotiations with 
Onis and Vives, but bringing no proportionate 
fame, however well it might be performed. The 
subject was one which had " occupied for the 
last sixty years many of the ablest men in 
Europe, and to which all the power and all the 
philosophical and mathematical learning and in- 
genuity of France and of Great Britain" had 
during that period been incessantly directed. 
It was fairly enough described as a " fearful and 
oppressive task." Upon its dry and uncongen- 
ial difficulties Mr. Adams had been employed 
with his wonted industry for upwards of four 
years ; he now spoke of the result modestly as 
" a hurried and imperfect work." But others, 
who have had to deal with the subject, have 
found this report a solid and magnificent mon- 
ument of research and reflection, which has not 
even yet been superseded by later treatises. Mr. 
Adams was honest in labor as in everything, 
and was never careless at points where inac- 
curacy or lack of thoroughness might be ex- 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 127 

pected to escape detection. Hence his success 
in a task upon which it is difficult to imagine 
other statesmen of that day — Clay, Webster, 
or Callioun, for example — so much as making 
an effort. The topic is not one concerning 
which readers would tolerate much lingering. 
Suffice it then to say that the document illus- 
trated the ability and the character of the man, 
and so with this brief mention to dismiss in a 
paragraph an achievement which, had it been 
accomplished in any more showy department, 
would alone have rendered Mr. Adams famous. 
It is highly gratifying now to look back upon 
the high spirit and independent temper uni- 
formly displayed by Mr. Adams abroad and at 
home in all dealings with foreign powers. Never 
in any instance did he display the least tinge 
of that rodomontade and boastful extravao:ance 
which have given an underbred air to so many 
of our diplomats, and which inevitably cause the 
basis for such self -laudation to appear of dubious 
sufficiency. But he had the happy gift of a na- 
tive pride which enabled him to support in the 
most effective manner the dignity of the people 
for whom he spoke. * For example, in treaties be- 
tween the United States and European powers 
the latter were for a time wont to name them- 
selves first throughout the instruments, contrary 
to the custom of alternation practised in trea- 



128 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

ties between themselves. With some difficulty, 
partly interposed, it must be confessed, by his 
own American coadjutors, Mr. Adams succeeded 
in putting a stop to this usage. It was a matter 
of insignificant detail, in one point of view ; but 
in diplomacy insignificant details often sym- 
bolize important facts, and there is no question 
that this habit had been construed as a tacit 
but intentional arrogance of superiority on the 
part of the Europeans. 

For a long period after the birth of the 
country there was a strong tendency, not yet 
so eradicated as to be altogether undiscovera- 
ble, on the part of American statesmen to keep 
one eye turned covertly askance upon the trans- 
Atlantic courts, and to consider, not without a 
certain anxious deference, what appearance the 
new United States might be presenting to the 
critical eyes of foreign countries and diplomats. 
Mr. Adams was never guilty of such indirect 
admissions of an inferiority which apparently 
he never felt. In the matter of the acquisition 
of Florida, Crawford suggested that England 
and France regarded the people of the United 
States as ambitious and encroaching; where- 
fore he advised a moderate policy in order to 
remove this impression. Mr. Adams on the 
other side declared that he was not in favor 
of our giving ourselves any concern whatever 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 129 

about the opinions of any foreign power. " If 
the world do not hold us for Romans," he said, 
"they will take us for Jews, and of the two 
vices I would rather be charged with that which 
has greatness mingled in its composition." His 
views were broad and grand. He was quite 
ready to have the world become " familiarized 
with the idea of considering our proper domin- 
ion to be the continent of North America." 
This extension he declared to be a " law of na- 
ture." To suppose that Spain and England 
could, through the long lapse of time, retain 
their possessions on this side of the Atlantic 
seemed to him a " physical, moral, and political 
absurdity." 

The doctrine which has been christened with 
the name of President Monroe seems likely to 
win for him the permanent glory of having 
originated the wise policy which that familiar 
phrase now signifies. It might, however, be 
shown that by right of true paternity the bant- 
ling should have borne a different patronymic. 
Not only is the " Monroe Doctrine," as that 
phrase is customarily construed in our day, 
much more comprehensive than the simple the- 
ory first expressed by Monroe and now included 
in the modern doctrine as a part in the whole, 
but a principle more fully identical with the 
imperial one of to-day had been conceived and 



130 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

shaped by Mr. Adams before tbe delivery of 
Monroe's famous message. As has just been 
remarked, he looked forward to the possession 
of the whole North American continent by the 
United States as a sure destiny, and for his own 
part, whenever opportunity offered, he was never 
backward to promote this glorious ultimate con- 
summation. He was in favor of the acquisition 
of Louisiana, whatever fault he might find with 
the scheme of Mr. Jefferson for making it a 
state ; he was ready in 1815 to ask the British 
plenipotentiaries to cede Canada simply as a 
matter of common sense and mutual conven- 
ience, and as the comfortable result of a war 
in which the United States had been worsted ; 
he never labored harder than in negotiating for 
the Floridas, and in pushing our western bound- 
aries to the Pacific ; in April, 1823, he wrote 
to the American minister at Madrid the signifi- 
cant remark : " It is scarcely possible to resist 
the conviction that the annexation of Cuba to 
our Federal Republic will be indispensable to 
the continuance and integrity of the Union." 
Encroachments never seemed distasteful to him, 
and he was always forward to stretch a point 
in order to advocate or defend a seizure of dis- 
puted North American territory, as in the cases 
of Amelia Island, Pensacola, and Galveston. 
When discussion arose with Russia concerning 



. SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 131 

her possessions on the northwest coast of this 
continent, Mr. Adams audaciously told the Rus- 
sian minister, Baron Tuyl, July 17, 1823, " that 
we should contest the rights of Russia to any 
territorial establishment on this continent, and 
that we should assume distinctly the principle 
that the American continents are no longer sub- 
jects for any new European colonial establish- 
ments." " This," says Mr. Charles Francis ^ 
Adams in a footnote to the passage in the 
Diary, " is the first hint of the policy so well 
known afterwards as the Monroe Doctrine." 
Nearly ^nq months later, referring to the same 
matter in his message to Congress, December 
2, 1823, President Monroe said : " The occasion 
has been judged proper for asserting, as a prin- 
ciple in which the rights and interests of the ^ 
United States are involved, that the American 
continents, by the free and independent condi- 
tion which they have assumed and maintain, 
are henceforth not to be considered as subjects 
for future colonization by any European powers." 
It will be observed that both Mr. Adams and 
President Monroe used the phrase " continents," 
including thereby South as well as North Amer- 
ica. A momentous question was imminent, 
which fortunately never called for a determina- 
tion by action, but which in this latter part 
of 1823 threatened to do so at any moment. 



132 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

Cautious and moderate as the United States 
had been, under Mr. Adams's guidance, in recog- 
nizing the freedom and autonomy of the South 
American states, yet in time the recognition 
was made of one after another, and the emanci- 
pation of South America had come, while Mr. 
Adams was yet Secretary, to be regarded as an 
established fact. But now, in 1823-24, came 
mutterings from across the Atlantic indicating 
a strong probability that the members of the 
Holy Alliance would interfere in behalf of mo- 
narchical and anti-revolutionary principles, and 
would assist in the resubjugation of the suc- 
cessful insurgents. That each one of the pow- 
ers who should contribute to this huge crusade 
would expect and receive territorial reward 
could not be doubted. Mr. Adams, in unison 
with most of his countrymen, contemplated with 
profound distrust and repulsion the possibility 
of such an European inroad. Stimulated by 
the prospect of so unwelcome neighbors, he 
prepared some dispatches, " drawn to corre- 
spond exactly" with the sentiments of Mr. 
Monroe's message, in which he appears to have 
taken a very high and defiant position. These 
documents, coming before the Cabinet for con- 
sideration, caused some flutter among his asso- 
ciates. In the possible event of the Holy Alli- 
ance actually intermeddling in South American 



SECRETAKY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 133 

affairs, it was said, the principles enunciated by 
the Secretary of State would involve this coun- 
try in war with a very formidable confedera- 
tion. Mr. Adams acknowledged this, but cour- 
ageously declared that in such a crisis he felt 
quite ready to take even this spirited stand. 
His audacious spirit went far in advance of the 
cautious temper of the Monroe administration; 
possibly it went too far in advance of the dic- 
tates of a wise prudence, though fortunately 
the course of events never brought this ques- 
tion to trial ; and it is at least gratifying to 
contemplate such a manifestation of daring 
temper. 

But though so bold and independent, Mr. 
Adams was not habitually reckless nor prone 
to excite animosity by needless arrogance in ac- 
tion or extravagance in principle. In any less 
perilous extremity than was presented by this 
menaced intrusion of combined Europe he fol- 
lowed rigidly the wise rule of non-interference. 
For many years before this stage was reached 
he had been holding in difficult check the 
enthusiasts who, under the lead of Mr. Clay, 
would have embroiled us with Spain and Por- 
tugal. Once he was made the recipient of a 
very amusing proposition from the Portuguese 
minister, that the United States and Portugal, 
as " the two great powers of the western liemi- 



134: JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

sphere," should concert together a grand Amer- 
ican system. The drollery of this notion was of 
a kind that Mr. Adams could appreciate, though 
to most manifestations of humor he was utterly 
impervious. But after giving vent to some con- 
temptuous merriment he adds, with a just and 
serious pride : " As to an American system, we 
have it ; we constitute the whole of it ; there is 
no community of interests or of principles be- 
tween North and South America." This sound 
doctrine was put forth in 1820 ; and it was only 
modified in the manner that we have seen dur- 
ing a brief period in 1823, in face of the alarm- 
ing vision not only of Spain and Portugal re- 
stored to authority, but of Russia in possession 
of California and more, France in possession of 
Mexico, and perhaps Great Britain becoming 
mistress of Cuba. 

So far as European affairs were concerned, 
Mr. Adams always and consistently refused to 
become entangled in them, even in the slight- 
est and most indirect manner. When the cause 
of Greek liberty aroused the usual throng of 
noisy advocates for active interference, he con- 
tented himself with expressions of cordial sym- 
pathy, accompanied by perfectly distinct and 
explicit statements that under no circumstances 
could any aid in the way of money or auxiliary 
forces be expected from this country. Neutrals 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 135 

we were and would remain in any and all 
European quarrels. Wlien Stratford Canning- 
urged, with the uttermost measure of persist- 
ence of which even he was capable, that for 
the suppression of the slave trade some such ar- 
rangement might be made as that of mixed tri- 
bunals for the trial of slave-trading vessels, and 
alleged that divers European powers were unit- 
ing for this purpose, Mr. Adams suggested, as 
an insuperable obstacle, " the general extra-Eu- 
ropean policy of the United States — a pol- 
icy which they had always pursued as best 
suited to their own interests, and best adapted 
to harmonize with those of Europe. This pol- 
icy had also been that of Europe, which had 
never considered the United States as belong- 
ing to her system. ... It was best for both 
parties that they should continue to do so." In 
any European combinations, said Mr. Adams, 
in which the United States should become a 
member, she must soon become an important 
power, and must always be, in many respects, 
an uncongenial one. It was best that she 
should keep wholly out of European politics, 
even of such leagues as one for the suppres- 
sion of the slave trade. He added, that he did 
not wish his language to be construed as im- 
porting " an unsocial and sulky spirit on the 
part of the United States ; " for no such tem- 



136 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

per existed ; it had simply been the policy of 
Europe to consider this country as standing 
aloof from all European federations, and in this 
treatment " we had acquiesced, because it fell 
in with our own policy." 

In a word, Mr. Adams, by his language and 
actions, established and developed precisely that 
doctrine which has since been adopted by this 
country under the doubly incorrect name of the 
" Monroe Doctrine," — a name doubly incor- 
rect, because even the real " Monroe Doctrine " 
was not an original idea of Mr. Monroe, and 
because the doctrine which now goes by that 
name is not identical with the doctrine which 
Monroe did once declare. Mr. Adams's princi- 
ple was simply that the United States would 
take no part whatsoever in foreign politics, not 
even in those of South America, save in the ex- 
treme event, eliminated from among things pos- 
sible in this generation, of such an interference 
as was contemplated by the Holy Alliance ; and 
that, on the other hand, she would permit no 
European power to gain any new foothold upon 
\ this continent. Time and experience have not 
enabled us to improve upon the principles 
which Mr. Adams worked out for us. 

Mr. Adams had some pretty stormy times with 
Mr. Stratford Canning — the same gentleman 
who in his later life is familiar to the readers 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 137 

of Kinglake's " History of the Crimean War " 
as Lord Stratford de Redclyffe, or Eltclii. That 
minister's overbearing and dictatorial deport- 
ment was afterwards not out of place when he 
was representing the protecting power of Great 
Britain in the court of the " sick man." But 
when he began to display his arrogance in the 
face of Mr. Adams he found that he was beard- 
ing one who was at least his equal in pride and 
temper. The naive surprise which he man- 
ifested on making this discovery is very amus- 
ing, and the accounts of the interviews between 
the two are among the most pleasing episodes in 
the history of our foreign relations. Nor are 
they less interesting as a sort of confidential 
peep at the asperities of diplomacy. It appears 
that besides the composed and formal dignity of 
phrase which alone the public knows in pub- 
lished state papers and official correspondence, 
there is also an official language of wrath and 
retort not at all artificial or stilted, but quite 
homelike and human in its sound. 

One subject much discussed between Mr. 
Adams and Mr. Canninsf related to the Ens;- 
lish propositions for joint efforts to suppress 
the slave trade. Great Britain had engaged 
with much vigor and certainly with an admir- 
able humanity in this cause. Her scheme was 
that each power should keep armed cruisers on 



138 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

the coast of Africa, that the war-ships of either 
nation might search the merchant vessels of the 
other, and that mixed courts of joint commis- 
sioners should try all cases of capture. This 
plan had been urged upon the several Euro- 
pean nations, but with imperfect success. Por- 
tugal, Spain, and the Netherlands had assented 
to it; Russia, France, Austria, and Prussia 
had rejected it. Mr. Adams's notion was that 
the ministry were, in their secret hearts, rather 
lukewarm in the business, but that they were 
so pressed by " the party of the saints in Par- 
liament" that they were obliged to make a 
parade of zeal. Whether this suspicion was 
correct or not, it is certain that Mr. Stratford 
Canning was very persistent in the presenta- 
tion of his demands, and could not be persuaded 
to take No for an answer. Had it been pos- 
sible to give any more favorable reply no one 
in the United States in that day would have 
been better pleased than Mr. Adams to do so. 
But the obstacles were insuperable. Besides 
the undesirability of departing from the " ex- 
tra-European policy," the mixed courts would 
have been unconstitutional, and could not have 
been established even by act of Congress, 
while the claims advanced by Great Britain to 
search our ships for Engiish-born seamen in 
time of war utterly precluded the possibility 



I 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 139 

of admitting any rights of search whatsoever 
upon her part, even in time of peace, for any 
purpose or in any shape. In vain did the Eng- 
lishman reiterate his appeal. Mr. Adams as 
often explained that the insistence of England 
upon her outrageous claim had rendered the 
United States so sensitive upon the entire sub- 
ject of search that no description of right of 
that kind could ever be tolerated. "All con- 
cession of principle," he said, "tended to en- 
courage encroachment, and if naval officers 
were once habituated to search the vessels of 
other nations in time of peace for one thing, 
they would be still more encouraged to practise 
it for another thing in time of war." The only 
way for Great Britain to achieve her purpose 
would be " to bind herself by an article, as 
strong and explicit as language can make it, 
never again in time of war to take a man from 
an American vessel." This of course was an 
inadmissible proposition, and so Mr. Stratford 
Canning's incessant urgency produced no sub- 
stantial results. This discussion, however, was 
generally harmonious. Once only, in its earlier 
stages, Mr. Adams notes a remark of Mr. Can- 
ning, repeated for the second time, and not alto- 
gether gratifying. He said, writes Mr. Adams, 
"that he should always receive any observa- 
tions that I may make to him with a just defer- 



140 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

ence to my advance of years — over him. This 
is one of those equivocal compliments which, 
according to Sterne, a Frenchman always re- 
turns with a bow." 

It was when they got upon the matter of the 
American settlement at the mouth of the Co- 
lumbia River, that the two struck fire. Posses- 
sion of this disputed spot had been taken by the 
Americans, but was broken up by the British 
during the war of 1812. After the declaration 
of peace upon the status ante bellum, a British 
government vessel had been dispatched upon the 
special errand of making formal return of the 
port to the Americans. In January, 1821, 
certain remarks made in debate in the House 
of Representatives, followed soon afterward by 
publication in the ''National Intelligencer" of a 
paper signed by Senator Eaton, led Mr. Canning 
to think that the Government entertained the 
design of establishing a substantial settlement at 
the mouth of the river. On January 26 he called 
upon Mr. Adams and inquired the intentions of 
the Administration in regard to this. Mr. Adams 
replied that an increase of the present settlement 
was not improbable. Thereupon Mr. Canning 
dropping the air of " easy familiarity " which 
had previously marked the intercourse between 
the two, and " assuming a tone more peremptory " 
than Mr. Adams " was disposed to endure," ex- 



SECKETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 141 

pressed his great surprise. Mr. Adams " with 
a corresponding change of tone " expressed 
equal surprise, " both at the form and substance 
of his address." Mr. Canning said that " he 
conceived such a settlement would be a direct 
violation of the article of the Convention of 
20th October, 1818." Mr. Adams took down a 
volume, read the article, and said, " Now, sir, 
if you have any charge to make against the 
American Government for a violation of this 
article, you will please to make the communica- 
tion in writing." Mr. Canning retorted, with 
great vehemence : — 

" ' And do you suppose, sir, that I am to be dictated 
to as to the manner in which I may think proper to 
communicate with the American Government ? ' I 
answered, ' No, sir. We know very well what are the 
privileges of foreign ministers, and mean to respect 
tliera. But you will give us leave to determine what 
communications we will receive, and how we will re- 
ceive them ; and you may be assured we are as little 
disposed to submit to dictation as to exercise it.' He 
then, in a louder and more passionate tone of voice, 
said : ' And am I to understand that I am to be re- 
fused henceforth any conference with you upon the 
subject of my mission ? ' ' Not at all, sir,' said I, 
' my request is, that if you have anything further to 
say to me upon this subject, you would say it in writ- 
ing. And my motive is to avoid what, both from the 
nature of the subject and from the manner in which 



142 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

you have thought proper to open it, I foresee will 
tend only to mutual irritation, and not to an amicable 
arrangement.' With some abatement of tone, but in 
the same peremptory manner, he said, ' Am I to un- 
derstand that you refuse any further conference with 
me on this subject ? ' I said, ' No. But you will un- 
derstand that I am not pleased either with the grounds 
upon which you have sought this conference, nor with 
the questions which you have seen fit to put to me. 



J >> 



Mr. Adams then proceeded to expose the 
impropriety of a foreign minister demanding 
from the Administration an explanation of words 
uttered in debate in Congress, and also said that 
he supposed that the British had no claim to the 
territory in question. Mr. Canning rejoined, 
and referred to the sending out of the American 
ship of war Ontario, in 1817, without any notice 
to the British minister ^ at Washington, — 

"speaking in a very emphatic manner and as if 
there had been an intended secret expedition . . . 
which had been detected only by the vigilance and 
penetration of the British minister. I answered, 
' Why, Mr. Bagot did say something to me about it ; 
but I certainly did not think him serious, and we had 
a good-humored laughing conversation on the occa- 
sion.' Canning, with great vehemence : ' You may 
rely upon it, sir, that it was no laughing matter to 
him ; for I have seen his report to his government 

1 Then Mr. Bagot, 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 143 

and know what his feelings concerning it were.' I 
replied, ' This is the first intimation I have ever re- 
ceived that Mr. Bagot took the slightest offence at 
what then passed between us, . . . and you will give 
me leave to say that when he left this country ' — 
Here I was going to add that the last words he said 
to me were words of thanks for the invariable urban- 
ity and liberality of my conduct and the personal kind- 
ness which he had uniformly received from me. But 
I could not finish the sentence. Mr. Canning, in a 
paroxysm of extreme irritation, broke out : ' I stop you 
there. I will not endure a misrepresentation of what 
I say. I never said that Mr. Bagot took offence at 
anything that had passed between him and you ; and 
nothing that I said imported any such thing.' Then 
. . . added in the same passionate manner : ' I am 
treated like a school-boy.' I then resumed : ' Mr. 
Canning, I have a distinct recollection of the sub- 
stance of the short conversation between Mr. Bagot 
and me at that time ; and it was this ' — ' No doubt, 
sir,' said Canning, interrupting me again, ' no doubt, 
sir, Mr. Bagot answered you like a man of good 
breeding and good humor.' " 

Mr. Adams began again and succeeded in 
making, without further interruption, a careful 
recital of his talk with Mr. Bagot. While he 
was speaking Mr. Canning grew cooler, and ex- 
pressed some surprise at what he heard. But in 
a few moments the conversation again became 
warm and personal. Mr. Adams remarked that 



144 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

heretofore he had thrown off some of the " cau- 
tious reserve " which might have been " strictly 
regular *' between them, and that 

" ' so long as his (Canning's) professions had been 
supported by his conduct ' — Here Mr. Canning 
again stopped me by repeating with great vehemence, 
' My conduct ! I am responsible for my conduct only 
to my government ! ' ^^ 

Mr. Adams replied, substantially, that he 
could respect the rights of Mr. Canning and 
maintain his own, and that he thought the best 
mode of treating this topic in future would be 
by writing. Mr. Canning then expressed him- 
self as 

" ' willing to forget all that had now passed.' I 
told him that I neither asked nor promised him to 
forget. . . . He asked again if he was to understand 
me as refusing to confer with him further on the 
subject. I said, ' No.' ' Would I appoint a time for 
that purpose ? ' I said, ' Now, if he pleased. . . . 
But as he appeared to be under some excitement, 
perhaps he might prefer some other time, in which 
case I would readily receive him to-morrow at one 
o'clock ; ' upon which he rose and took leave, saying 
he would come at that time." 

The next day, accordingly, this genial pair 
again encountered. Mr. Adams noted at first 
in Mr. Canning's manner " an effort at coolness, 



SECRETARY OF STaI E AND PRESIDENT 145 

but no appearance of cheerfulness or good 
humor, i saw there was no relaxation of the 
tone he had yesterday assumed, and felt that 
none would on my part be suitable." They 
went over quietly enough some of the ground 
traversed the day before, Mr. Adams again ex- 
plaining the impropriety of Mr. Canning ques- 
tioning him concerning remarks made in debate 
in Congress. It was, he said, as if Mr. Rush, 
hearing in the House of Commons something 
said about sending troops to the Shetland Is- 
lands, should proceed to question Lord Castle- 
reagh about it. 

" ' Have you,' said Mr. Canning, ' ahy claim to the 
Shetland Islands ? ' ' Have you any claim,'' said I, 
' to the mouth of Columbia River ? ' ' Why, do you 
not know,' replied he, ' that we have a claim ? ' ' I do 
not know,' said I, ' what you claim nor what you do 
not claim. You claim India ; you claim Africa ; you 
claim ' — ' Perhaps,' said he, ' a piece of the moon.' 
* No,' said I, ' I have not heard that you claim exclu- 
sively any part of the moon ; but there is not a spot 
on this habitable globe that I could affirm you do not 
claim!'" 

The conversation continued with alternations of 
lull and storm, Mr. Canning at times becoming 
warm and incensed and interrupting Mr. Adams, 
who retorted with a dogged asperity which must 
Lave been extremely irritating. Mr, Adams 



146 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

said that he did " not expect to be plied with 
captious questions " to obtain indirectly that 
which had been directly denied. Mr. Canning, 
" exceedingly irritated," complained of the word 
" captious." Mr. Adams retaliated by reciting 
offensive language used by Mr. Canning, who 
in turn replied that he had been speaking only 
in self-defence. Mr. Canning found occasion 
to make again his peculiarly rasping remark 
that he should always strive to show towards 
Mr. Adams the deference due to his " more ad- 
vanced years." After another very uncomfort- 
able passage, Mr. Adams said that the behavior 
of Mr. Canning in making the observations of 
members of Congress a basis of official interro- 
gations was a pretension the more necessary to 
be resisted because this 

" ' was not the first time it had been raised by a 
British minister here.' He asked, with great emo- 
tion, who that minister was. I answered, ' Mr. Jack- 
son.' ' And you got rid of him ! ' said Mr. Canning, 
in a tone of violent passion — ' and you got rid of 
him ! — and you got rid of him ! ' This repetition of 
the same words, always in the same tone, was with 
pauses of a few seconds between each of them, as if 
for a reply. I said : ' Sir, my reference to the pre- 
tension of Mr. Jackson was not ' — Here Mr. 
Canning interrupted me by saying : ' If you think 
that by reference to Mr. Jackson I am to be intimi- 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 147 

dated from the performance of my duty you will find 
yourself greatly mistaken.' ' I had not, sir,' said I, 
* the most distant intention of intimidating you from 
the performance of your duty ; nor was it with the 
intention of alluding to any subsequent occurrences 
of his mission ; but ' — Mr. Canning interrupted 
me again by saying, still in a tone of high exaspera- 
tion, — ' Let me tell you, sir, that your reference 
to the case of Mr. Jackson is exceedingly offensive.' 
' I do not know,' said I, ' whether I shall be able to 
finish what I intended to say, under such continual 
interruptions.' " 

Mr. Canning thereupon intimated by a bow his 
willingness to listen, and Mr. Adams reiterated 
what in a more fragmentary way he had already 
said. Mr. Canning then made a formal speech, 
mentioning his desire " to cultivate harmony 
and smooth down all remnants of asperity be- 
tween the two countries," again gracefully re- 
ferred to the deference which he should at all 
times pay to Mr. Adams's age, and closed by 
declaring, with a significant emphasis, that he 
would " never forget the respect due from him 
to the American Government.^^ Mr. Adams 
bowed in silence and the stormy interview 
ended. A day or two afterward the disputants 
met by accident, and Mr. Canning showed such 
signs of resentment that there passed between 
them a " bare salutation." 



148 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

In the condition of our relations with Great 
Britain at the time of these interviews any 
needless ill-feeling was strongly to be depre- 
cated. But Mr. Adams's temperament was 
such that he always saw the greater chance of 
success in strong and spirited conduct ; nor 
could he endure that the dignity of the Repub- 
lic, any more than its safety, should take detri- 
ment in his hands. Moreover he understood 
Englishmen better perhaps than they have ever 
been understood by any other of the public men 
of the United States, and he handled and sub- 
dued them with a temper and skill highly agree- 
able to contemplate. The President supported 
him fully throughout the matter, and the discom- 
fiture and wrath of Mr. Canning never became 
even indirectly a cause of regret to the country. 

As the years allotted to Monroe passed on, 
the manoeuvring among the candidates for the 
succession to the Presidency grew in activity. 
There were several possible j^residents in the 
field, and during the "era of good feeling" 
many an aspiring politician had his brief period 
of mild expectancy followed in most cases only 
too surely by a hopeless relegation to obscurity. 
There were, however, four whose anticipations 
rested upon a substantial basis. William H. 
Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury, had been 
the rival of Monroe for nomination by the Con- 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 149 

gressional caucus, and had then developed suf- 
ficient strength to make him justly sanguine 
that he might stand next to Monroe in the suc- 
cession as he apparently did in the esteem o£ 
their common party. Mr. Clay, Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, had such expecta- 
tions as might fairly grow out of his brilliant 
reputation, powerful influence in Congress, and 
great personal popularity. Mr. Adams was 
pointed out not only by his deserts but also by 
his position in the Cabinet, it having been the 
custom heretofore to promote the Secretary of 
State to the Presidency. It was not until the 
time of election was near at hand that the 
strength of General Jackson, founded of course 
upon the effect of his military prestige upon 
the masses of the people, began to appear to the 
other competitors a formidable element in the 
great rivalry. For a while Mr. Calhoun might 
have been regarded as a fifth, since he had al- 
ready become the great chief of the South ; but 
this cause of his strength was likewise his weak- 
ness, since it was felt that the North was fairly 
entitled to present the next candidate. The 
others, who at one time and another had aspi- 
rations, like De Witt Clinton and Tompkins, 
were never really formidable, and may be dis- 
regarded as insignificant threads in the complex 
political snarl which must be unravelled. 



150 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

As a study of the dark side of political 
society during this period Mr. Adams's Diary 
is profoundly interesting. He writes with a 
charming absence of reserve. If he thinks 
there is rascality at work, he sets down the 
names of the knaves and expounds their various 
villainies of act and motive with delightfully 
outspoken frankness. All his life he was some- 
what prone, it must be confessed, to depreciate 
the moral characters of others, and to suspect 
unworthy designs in the methods or ends of those 
who crossed his path. It was the not unnatural 
result of his own rigid resolve to be honest. 
Refraining with the stern conscientiousness, 
which was in the composition of his Puritan 
blood, from every act, whether in public or in 
private life, which seemed to him in the least 
degree tinged with immorality, he found a sort 
of compensation for the restraints and discom- 
forts of his own austerity in judging severely the 
less punctilious world around him. Whatever 
other faults he had, it is unquestionable that 
his uprightness was as consistent and unvarying 
as can be reached by human nature. Yet his 
temptations were made the greater and the 
more cruel by the beliefs constantly borne in 
upon him that his rivals did not accept for their 
own governance in the contest the same rules 
by which he was pledged to himself to abide. 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 151 

Jealousy enhanced suspicion, and suspicion in 
turn pricked jealousy. It is necessary, there- 
fore, to be somewhat upon our guard in accept- 
ing his estimates of men and acts at this period ; 
though the broad general impression to be gath- 
ered from his treatment of his rivals, even in 
these confidential pages, is favorable at least to 
his justice of disposition and honesty of intention. 
At the outset Mr. Clay excited Mr. Adams's 
most lively resentment. The policy which 
seemed most promising to that gentleman lay in 
antagonism to the Administration, whereas, in 
the absence of substantial party issues, there 
seemed, at least to members of that Administra- 
tion, to be no proper grounds for such antagonism. 
When, therefore, Mr. Clay fomid or devised such 
grounds, the President and his Cabinet, vexed 
and harassed by the opposition of so influential 
a man, not unnaturally attributed his tactics to 
selfish and, in a political sense, corrupt motives. 
Thus Mr. Adams stigmatized his opposition to 
the Florida treaty as prompted by no just 
objection to its stipulations, but by a malicious 
wish to bring discredit upon the negotiator. 
Probably the charge was true, and Mr. Clay's 
honesty in opposing an admirable treaty can only 
be vindicated at the expense of his understand- 
ing, — an explanation certainly not to be ac- 
cepted. But when Mr. Adams attributed to 



152 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

the same motive of embarrassing the Admin- 
istration Mr. Clay's energetic endeavors to force 
a recognition of the insurgent states of South 
America, he exaggerated the inimical element 
in his rival's motives. It was the business of 
the President and Cabinet, and preeminently 
of the Secretary of State, to see to it that the 
country should not move too fast in this very 
nice and perilous matter of recognizing the in- 
dependence of rebels. Mr. Adams was the re- 
sponsible minister, and had to hold the reins ; 
Mr. Clay, outside the official vehicle, cracked 
the lash probably a little more loudly than he 
would have done had he been on the coach-box. 
It may be assumed that in advocating his vari- 
ous motions looking to the appointment of min- 
isters to the new states and to other acts of 
recognition, he felt his eloquence rather fired 
than dampened by the thought of how much 
trouble he was making for Mr. Adams ; but that 
he was at the same time espousing the cause to 
which he sincerely wished well is probably true. 
His ardent temper was stirred by this struggle 
for independence, and his rhetorical nature 
could not resist the opportunities for fervid and 
brilliant oratory presented by this struggle for 
freedom against mediaeval despotism. Real con- 
victions were sometimes diluted with rodomon- 
tade, and a true feeling was to some extent stim- 
ulated by the desire to embarrass a rival. 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 153 

Entire freedom from prejudice would have 
been too much to expect from Mr. Adams ; but 
his criticisms of Clay are seldom marked by any 
serious accusations or really bitter explosions of 
ill-temper. Early in his term of office he writes 
that Mr. Clay has " already mounted his South 
American great horse," and that his "project 
is that in which John Randolph failed, to con- 
trol or overthrow the Executive by swaying the 
House of Representatives." Again he says that 
" Clay is as rancorously benevolent as John 
Randolph." The sting of these remarks lay 
rather in the comparison with Randolph than 
in their direct allegations. In January, 1819, 
Adams notes that Clay has "redoubled his ran- 
cor against me," and gives himself " free swing 
to assault me . . . both in his public speeches 
and by secret machinations, without scruple or 
delicacy." The diarist gloomily adds, that " all 
public business in Congress now connects itself 
with intrigues, and there is great danger that 
the whole Government will degenerate into a 
struggle of cabals." He was rather inclined to 
such pessimistic vaticinations ; but it must be 
confessed that he spoke with too much reason 
on this occasion. In the absence of a sufficient 
supply of important public questions to absorb 
the energies of the men in public life, the petty 
game of personal politics was playing with un- 



154 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

usual zeal. As time went on, however, and the 
South American questions were removed from 
the arena, Adams's ill-feeling towards Clay be- 
came greatly mitigated. Clay's assaults and 
opposition also gradually dwindled away; go- 
betweens carried to and fro disclaimers, made 
by the principals, of personal ill-will towards 
each other ; and before the time of election was 
actually imminent something as near the en- 
tente cordiale was established as could be rea- 
sonably expected to exist between competitors 
very unlike both in moral and mental consti- 
tution.^ 

Mr. Adams's unbounded indignation and pro- 
found contempt were reserved for Mr. Crawford, 
partly, it may be suspected by the cynically 
minded, because Crawford for a long time seemed 
to be by far the most formidable rival, but 
partly also because Crawford was in fact un- 
able to resist the temptation to use ignoble 
means for attaining an end which he coveted 
too keenly for his own honor. It was only by 
degrees that Adams began to suspect the imder- 
hand methods and malicious practices of Craw- 
ford ; but as conviction was gradually brought 
home to him his native tendency towards sus- 
picion was enhanced to an extreme degree. He 

1 For a deliberate estimate of Clay's character see Mr. 
Adams's Diary, v. 325. 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 155 

then came to recognize in Crawford a wholly 
selfish and scheming politician, who had the 
baseness to retain his seat in Mr. Monroe's Cab- 
inet with the secret persistent object of giving 
the most fatal advice in his power. From that 
time forth he saw in every suggestion made by 
the Secretary of the Treasury only an insidious 
intent to lead the Administration, and especially 
the Department of State, into difficulty, failure, 
and disrepute. He notes, evidently with per- 
fect belief, that for this purpose Crawford was 
even covertly busy with the Spanish ambassador 
to prevent an accommodation of our differences 
with Spain. " Oh, the windings of the human 
heart ! " he exclaims ; " possibly Crawford is not 
himself conscious of his real motives for this 
conduct." Even the slender measure of charity 
involved in this last sentence rapidly evaporated 
from the poisoned atmosphere of his mind. He 
mentions that Crawford has killed a man in a 
duel ; that he leaves unanswered a pamphlet 
" supported by documents " exhibiting him " in 
the most odious light, as sacrificing every prin- 
ciple to his ambition." Because Calhoun would 
not support him for the Presidency, Crawford 
stimulated a series of attacks upon the War De- 
partment. He was the " instigator and animat- 
ing sj)irit of the whole movement both in Con- 
gress and at Richmond against Jackson and the 



156 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

Administration." He was " a worm preying 
upon the vitals of the Administration in its own 
body." He " solemnly deposed in a court of 
justice that which is not true," for the purpose 
of bringing discredit upon the testimony given 
by Mr. Adams in the same cause. But Mr. 
Adams says of this that he cannot bring him- 
self to believe that Crawford has been guilty of 
wilful falsehood, though convicted of inaccuracy 
by his own words ; for " ambition debauches 
memory itself." A little later he would have 
been less merciful. In some vexatious and diffi- 
cult commercial negotiations which Mr. Adams 
was conducting with France, Crawford is " afraid 
of [the result] being too favorable." 

To form a just opinion of the man thus un- 
pleasantly sketched is difficult. For nearly eight 
years Mr. Adams was brought into close and 
constant relations with him, and as a result 
formed a very low opinion of his character and 
by no means a high estimate of his abilities. 
Even after making a liberal allowance for 
the prejudice naturally supervening from their 
rivalry there is left a residuum of condemnation 
abundantly sufficient to ruin a more vigorous 
reputation than Crawford has left behind him. 
Apparently Mr. Calhoun, though a fellow 
Southerner, thought no better of the ambitious 
Georgian than did Mr. Adams, to whom one 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 157 

day he remarked that Crawford was " a very- 
singular instance of a man of such character 
rising to the eminence he now occupies ; that 
there has not been in the history of the Union 
another man with abilities so ordinary, with ser- 
vices so slender, and so thoroughly corrupt, who 
had contrived to make himself a candidate for 
the Presidency." Nor was this a solitary ex- 
pression of the feelings of the distinguished 
South Carolinian. 

Mr. E. H. Mills, Senator from Massachusetts, 
and a dispassionate observer, speaks of Crawford 
with scant favor as " coarse, rough, uneducated, 
of a pretty strong mind, a great intriguer, and 
determined to make himself President." He 
adds : " Adams, Jackson, and Callioun all think 
well of each other, and are united at least in 
one thing, — to wit, a most thorough dread and 
abhorrence of Crawford." 

Yet Crawford was for many years not only 
never without eager expectations of his own, 
which narrowly missed realization and might 
not have missed it had not his health broken 
down a few months too soon, but he had a large 
following, strong friends, and an extensive in- 
fluence. But if he really had great ability he 
had not the good fortune of an opportunity to 
show it ; and he lives in history rather as a man 
from whom much was expected than as a man 



158 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

who achieved much. One faculty, however, not 
of the best, but serviceable, he had in a rare de- 
gree : he thoroughly understood all the artifices 
of politics ; he knew how to interest and organ- 
ize partisans, to obtain newspaper support, and 
generally to extend and direct his following 
after that fashion which soon afterward began 
to be fully developed by the younger school of 
our public men. He was the avant courier of a 
bad system, of which the first crude manifesta- 
tions were received with well-merited disrelish 
by the worthier among his contemporaries. 

It is the more easy to believe that Adams's 
distrust of Crawford was a sincere convic- 
tion, when we consider his behavior towards 
another dangerous rival. General Jackson. In 
view of the new phase which the relationship 
between these two men was soon to take on, 
Adams's hearty championship of Jackson for 
several years prior to 1825 deserves mention. 
The Secretary stood gallantly by the General at 
a crisis in Jackson's life when he greatly needed 
such strong official backing, and in an hour of 
extreme need Adams alone in the Cabinet of 
Monroe lent an assistance which Jackson after- 
wards too readily forgot. Seldom has a govern- 
ment been brought by the undue zeal of its ser- 
vants into a quandary more perplexing than that 
into which the reckless military hero brought the 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 159 

Administration of President Monroe. Turned 
loose in the regions of Florida, checked only by 
an uncertain and disputed boundary line running 
through half-explored forests, confronted by a 
hated foe whose strength he could well afford 
to despise. General Jackson, in a war properly 
waged only against Indians, ran a wild and 
lawless, but very vigorous and effective, career 
in Spanish possessions. He hung a couple of 
British subjects with as scant trial and meagre 
shrift as if he had been a mediaeval free-lance ; 
he marched upon Spanish towns and peremp- 
torily forced the blue-blooded commanders to 
capitulate in the most humiliating manner ; 
afterwards, when the Spanish territory had be- 
come American, in his civil capacity as Gov- 
ernor, he flung the Spanish Commissioner into 
jail. He treated instructions, laws, and estab- 
lished usages as teasing cobwebs which any 
spirited public servant was in duty bound to 
break ; then he quietly stated his willingness to 
let the country take the benefit of his irregular 
proceedings and make him the scapegoat or 
martyr if such should be needed. How to treat 
this too successful chieftain was no simple pro- 
blem. He had done what he ought not to have 
done, yet everybody in the country was heartily 
glad that he had done it. He ought not to have 
hung Arbuthnot and Ambrister, nor to have 



160 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

seized Pensacola, nor later on to have imprisoned 
Callava ; yet the general efficiency of his pro- 
cedure fully accorded with the secret disposition 
of the country. It was, however, not easy to 
establish the propriety of his trenchant doings 
upon any acknowledged principles of law, and 
during the long period through which these dis- 
turbing feats extended, Jackson was left in 
painful solitude by those who felt obliged to 
judge his actions by rule rather than by sym- 
pathy. The President was concerned lest his 
Administration should be brought into indefen- 
sible embarrassment ; Calhoun was personally 
displeased because the instructions issued from 
his department had been exceeded ; Crawford 
eagerly sought to make the most of such admir- 
able opportunities for destroying the prestige 
of one who might grow into a dangerous rival ; 
Clay, who hated a military hero, indulged in a 
series of fierce denunciations in the House of 
Representatives ; Mr. Adams alone stood gal- 
lantly by the man who had dared to take vigor- 
ous measures upon his own sole responsibility. 
His career touched a kindred chord in Adams's 
own independent and courageous character, and 
perhaps for the only time in his life the Secre- 
tary of State became almost sophistical in the 
arguments by which he endeavored to sustain 
the impetuous warrior against an adverse Cab- 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 161 

inet. The authority given to Jackson to cross 
the Spanish frontier in pursuit of the Indian 
enemy was justified as being only defensive war- 
fare ; then " all the rest," argued Adams, " even 
to the order for taking the Fort of Barrancas by 
storm, was incidental, deriving its character from 
the object, which was not hostility to Spain, but 
the termination of the Indian war." Through 
long and anxious sessions Adams stood fast in 
opposing " the unanimous opinions " of the 
President, Crawford, Calhoun, and Wirt. Their 
policy seemed to him a little ignoble and wholly 
blundering, because, he said, " it is weakness 
and a confession of weakness. The disclaimer 
of power in the Executive is of dangerous ex- 
ample and of evil consequences. There is in- 
justice to the officer in disavowing him, when in 
principle he is strictly justifiable." This be- 
havior upon Mr. Adams's part was the more 
generous and disinterested because the earlier 
among these doings of Jackson incensed Don 
Onis extremely and were near bringing about 
the entire disruption of that important negotia- 
tion with Spain upon which Mr. Adams had so 
much at stake. But few civilians have had a 
stronger dash of the fighting element than had 
Mr. Adams, and this impelled him irresistibly 
to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jackson in 
such an emergency, regardless of possible con- 



162 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

sequences to himself. He preferred to insist 
that the hanging of Arbuthnot and Ambrister 
was according to the laws of war and to main- 
tain that position in the teeth of Stratford 
Canning rather than to disavow it and render 
ajDology and reparation. So three years later 
when Jackson was again in trouble by reason of 
his arrest of Callava, he still found a stanch 
advocate in Adams, who, having made an argu- 
ment for the defence which would have done 
credit to a subtle-minded barrister, concluded 
by adopting the sentiment of Hume concerning 
the execution of Don Pantaleon de Sa by Oliver 
Cromwell, — if the laws of nations had been 
violated, " it was by a signal act of justice de- 
serving universal approbation." Later still, on 
January 8, 1824, being the anniversary of the 
victory of New Orleans, as if to make a con- 
spicuous declaration of his opinions in favor of 
Jackson, Mr. Adams gave a great ball in his 
honor, "at which about one thousand persons 
attended." ^ 

1 Senator Mills says of this grand ball : " Eight large 
rooms were open and literally filled to overflowing. There 
must have been at least a thousand people there ; and so far 
as Mr. Adams was concerned it certainly evinced a great deal 
of taste, elegance, and good sense. . . . Many stayed till 
twelve and one. ... It is the universal opinion that nothing 
has ever equalled this party here either in brilliancy of prepa- 
ration or elegance of the company." 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 163 

He was in favor of offering to the General 
the position of minister to Mexico ; and before 
Jackson had developed into a rival of himself 
for the Presidency, he exerted himself to secure 
the Vice-Presidency for him. Thus by argu- 
ment and by influence in the Cabinet, in many 
a private interview, and in the world of society, 
also by wise counsel when occasion offered, Mr. 
Adams for many years made himself the note- 
worthy and indeed the only powerful friend of 
General Jackson. Nor up to the last moment, 
and when Jackson had become his most danger- 
ous competitor, is there any derogatory passage 
concerning him in the Diary. 

As the period of election drew nigh, interest 
in it absorbed everything else ; indeed during 
the last year of Monroe's Administration public 
affairs were so quiescent and the public business 
so seldom transcended the simplest routine, that 
there was little else than the next Presidency to 
be thought or talked of. The rivalship for this, 
as has been said, was based not upon conflicting 
theories concerning public affairs, but solely 
upon indi\'idual preference for one or another 
of four men no one of whom at that moment 
represented any great principle in antagonism 
to any of the others. Under no circumstances 
could the temjitation to petty intrigue and mali- 
cious tale-bearing be greater than when votes 



164 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

were to be gained or lost solely by personal pre- 
dilection. In such a contest Adams was severely 
handicapped as against the showy prestige of 
the victorious soldier, the popularity of the 
brilliant orator, and the artfulness of the most 
dexterous political manager then in public life. 
Long prior to this stage Adams had established 
his rule of conduct in the campaign. So early as 
March, 1818, he was asked one day by Mr. Ev- 
erett whether he was '' determined to do nothing 
with a view to promote his future election to the 
Presidency as the successor of Mr. Monroe," 
and he had replied that he " should do abso- 
lutely nothing." To this resolution he sturdily 
adhered. Not a breach of it was ever brought 
home to him, or indeed — save in one instance 
soon to be noticed — seriously charged against 
him. There is not in the Diary the faintest 
trace of any act which might be so much as 
questionable or susceptible of defence only by 
casuistry. That he should have perpetuated 
evidence of any flagrant misdoing certainly 
could not be expected ; but in a record kept 
with the fulness and frankness of this Diary we 
should read between the lines and detect as it 
were in its general flavor any taint of disingen- 
uousness or concealment ; we should discern 
moral unwholesomeness in its atmosphere. A 
thoughtless sentence would slip from the pen, 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 165 

a sophistical argument would be formulated 
for self-comfort, some acquaintance, interview, 
or arrangement would slide upon some un- 
guarded page indicative of undisclosed matters. 
But there is absolutely nothing of this sort. 
There is no tinge of bad color ; all is clear as 
crystal. Not an editor, nor a member of Con- 
gress, nor a local politician, not even a private 
individual, was intimidated or conciliated. On 
the contrary it often happened that those who 
made advances, at least sometimes stimulated 
by honest friendship, got rebuffs instead of 
encouragement. Even after the contest was 
known to have been transferred to the House 
of Representatives, when Washington was act- 
ually buzzing with the ceaseless whisperings of 
many secret conclaves, when the air was thick 
with rumors of what this one had said and that 
one had done, when, as Webster said, there 
were those who pretended to foretell how a re- 
presentative would vote from the way in which 
he put on his hat, when of course stories of 
intrigue and corruption poisoned the honest 
breeze, and when the streets seemed traversed 
only by the busy tread of the go-betweens, the 
influential friends, the wire-pullers of the vari- 
ous contestants, — still amid all this noisy ex- 
citement and extreme temptation Mr. Adams 
held himself almost wholly aloof, wrapped in the 



166 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

cloak of liis rigid integrity. His proud honesty 
was only not quite repellent ; lie sometimes al- 
lowed himseK to answer questions courteously, 
and for a brief period held in check his strong 
natural propensity to give offence and make en- 
emies. This was the uttermost length that he 
could go towards political corruption. He be- 
came for a few weeks tolerably civil of speech, 
which after all was much for him to do and 
doubtless cost him no insignificant effort. Since 
the days of Washington he alone presents the 
singular spectacle of a candidate for the Pres- 
idency deliberately taking the position, and in 
a long campaign really never flinching from it : 
" that, if the people wish me to be President I 
shall not refuse the office; but I ask nothing 
from any man or from any body of men." 

Yet though he declined to be a courtier of 
popular favor he did not conceal from himself 
or from others the chagrin which he would feel 
if there should be a manifestation of popular 
disfavor. Before the popular election he stated 
that if it should go against him he should con- 
strue it as the verdict of the people that they 
were dissatisfied with his services as a public 
man, and he should then retire to private life, 
no longer expecting or accepting public func- 
tions. He did not regard politics as a struggle 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 167 

in wMcli, if lie should now be beaten in one en° 
counter, he would return to another in the hope 
of better success in time. His notion was that 
the people had had ample opportunity during 
his incumbency in appointive offices to measure 
his ability and understand his character, and 
that the action of the people in electing or not 
electing him to the Presidency would be an in- 
dication that they were satisfied or dissatisfied 
with him. In the latter event he had nothing 
more to seek. Politics did not constitute a pro- 
fession or career in which he felt entitled to 
persist in seeking personal success as he might 
in the law or in business. Neither did the cir- 
cumstances of the time place him in the position 
of an advocate of any great principle which he 
might feel it his duty to represent and to fight 
for against any number of reverses. No such 
element was present at this time in national af- 
fairs. He construed the question before the 
people simply as concerning their opinion of 
him. He was much too proud to solicit and 
much too honest to scheme for a favorable ex- 
pression. It was a singular and a lofty attitude 
even if a trifle egotistical and not altogether 
unimpeachable by argument. It could not di- 
minish but rather it intensified his interest in a 
contest which he chose to regard not simply as 



168 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

a struggle for a glittering prize but as a judg- 
ment upon the services which he had been for a 
lifetime rendering to his countrymen. 

How profoundly his whole nature was moved 
by the position in which he stood is evident, 
often almost painfully, in the Diary. Any at- 
tempt to conceal his feeling would be idle, and 
he makes no such attempt. He repeats all the 
rumors which come to his ears; he tells the 
stories about Crawford's illness ; he records his 
own temptations ; he tries hard to nerve himself 
to bear defeat philosophically by constantly pre- 
dicting it; indeed, he photographs his whole 
existence for many weeks ; and however eagerly 
any person may aspire to the Presidency of the 
United States there is little in the picture to 
make one long for the preliminary position of 
candidate for that honor. It is too much like 
the stake and the flames through which the 
martyr passed to eternal beatitude, with the 
difference as against the candidate that he has 
by no means the martyr's certainty of reward. 

In those days of slow communication it was 
not until December, 1824, that it became every- 
where known that there had been no election of 
a president by the people. When the Electoral 
College met the result of their ballots was as 
follows ; — 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 169 

General Jackson led with . . 99 votes. 

Adams followed with .... 84 " 

Crawford had 41 " 

Clay had 37 " 

Total 261 votes. 

Mr. Calhoun was elected Vice-President by 
the handsome number of 182 votes. 

This condition of the election had been quite 
generally anticipated ; yet Mr. Adams's friends 
were not without some feeling of disappoint- 
ment. They had expected for him a fair sup- 
port at the South, whereas he in fact received 
seventy-seven out of his eighty-four votes from 
New York and New England ; Maryland gave 
him three, Louisiana gave him two, Delaware 
and Illinois gave him one each. 

When the electoral body was known to be 
reduced within the narrow limits of the House 
of Representatives, intrigue was rather stim- 
ulated than diminished by the definiteness 
which became possible for it. Mr. Clay, who 
could not come before the House, found him- 
self transmuted from a candidate to a President- 
maker ; for it was admitted by all that his great 
personal influence in Congress would almost 
undoubtedly confer success upon the asj^irant 
whom he should favor. Apparently his predi- 
lections were at least possibly in favor of Craw- 



170 JOIIX QUIXCY ADAMS 

ford ; but Crawford's health had been for many 
months very bad ; he had had a severe paralytic 
stroke, and when acting as Secretary of the 
Treasury he had been unable to sign his name, 
so that a stamp or die had been used ; his 
speech was scarcely intelligible ; and when Mr. 
Clay visited him in the retirement in which his 
friends now kept him, the fact could not be 
concealed that he was for the time at least a 
wreck. Mr. Clav therefore had to decide for 
himself, his followers, and the country whether 
Mr. Adams or General eTackson should be the 
next President of the United States. A crnel 
attempt was made in this crisis either to destroy 
his influence by blackening his character, or to 
intimidate him, through fear of losing his re- 
putation for integrity, into voting for Jackson. 
An anonymons letter charged that the friends 
of Clay had hinted that, *' like the Swiss, they 
would fight for those who pay best ; " that they 
had offered to elect Jackson if he would ac^ree 
to make Clay Secretary of State, and that upon 
his indignant refusal to make such a bargain 
the same proposition had been made to Mr. 
Adams, who was found less scrupulous and had 
promptly formed the "unholy coalition." This 
wretched publication, made a few days before 
the election in the House, was traced to a 
dull-witted Pennsylvania Kepresentative by the 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 171 

name of Kremer, who had obviously been used 
as a tool by cleverer men. It met, however, the 
fate which seems happily always to attend such 
ignoble devices, and failed utterly of any more 
important effect than the utter annihilation of 
Kremer. In truth, General Jackson's fate had 
l)cen sealed from the instant when it had fallen 
iuto ^Ir. Clay's hands. Clay had long since ex- 
]jressed hks unfavorable opinion of the " military 
hero," in terms too decisive to admit of expla- 
nation or retraction. Without much real liking 
for A(Lams, Clay at least disliked him much less 
than he did Jackson, and certainly his honest 
judgment favored the civilian far more than 
the disorderly soldier whose lawless career in 
Florida had been tlie topic of some of the 
great orator's fiercest invective. The arguments 
founded on personal fitness were strongly upon 
the side of Adams, and other arguments ad- 
vanced by the Jacksonians could hardly deceive 
Clay. They insisted that their candidate was 
the choice of the peoi)le so far as a superiority 
of preference had been indicated, and that there- 
fore he ouaht to be also the choice of the House 
of Representatives. It woidd be against the 
spirit of the Constitution and a thwarting of 
the popular will, they said, to prefer either of 
his competitors. The fallacy of this reasoning, 
if reasoning it could be called, was glaring. If 



172 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

the spirit of the Constitution required the 
House of Representatives not to elect from 
three candidates before it, but only to induct 
an individual into the Presidency by a process 
which was in form voting but in fact only a 
simple certification that he had received the 
highest number of electoral votes, it would have 
been a plain and easy matter for the letter of 
the Constitution to have expressed this spirit, or 
indeed to have done away altogether with this 
machinery of a sham election. The Jackson 
men had only to state their argument in order 
to expose its hollowness ; for they said substan- 
tially that the Constitution established an elec- 
tion without an option ; that the electors were 
to vote for a person predestined by an earlier 
occurrence to receive their ballots. But besides 
their unsoundness in argument, their statistical 
position was far from being what they under- 
took to represent it. The popular vote had 
been so light that it really looked as though 
the people had cared very little which candidate 
should succeed ; and to talk about a manifesta- 
tion of the popular will was absurd, for the 
only real manifestation had been of popular in- 
difference. For example, in 1823 Massachu- 
setts had cast upwards of 66,000 votes in the 
state election, whereas in this national election 
she cast only a trifle more than 37,000. Vir- 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 173 

ginia distributed a total of less than 15,000 
among all four candidates. Pluralities did not 
signify much in such a condition of sentiment 
as was indicated by these figures. Moreover, in 
six States, viz., Vermont, New York, Delaware, 
South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, the electors 
were chosen by the legislatures, not by the peo- 
ple ; so that there was no correct way of count- 
ing them at all in a discussion of pluralities. 
Guesses and approximations favored Adams, 
and to an important degree ; for these six States 
gave to Adams thirty-six votes, to Jackson nine- 
teen, to Crawford six, to Clay four. In New 
York, Jackson had hardly an appreciable follow- 
ing. Moreover, in other States many thousands 
of votes which had been " cast for no candidate 
in particular, but in opposition to the caucus 
ticket generally," were reckoned as if they had 
been cast for Jackson or against Adams, as 
suited the especial case. Undoubtedly Jackson 
did have a plurality, but undoubtedly it fell very 
far short of the imposing figure, nearly 48,000, 
which his supporters had the audacity to name. 
The election took place in the House on Feb- 
ruary 9, 1825. Daniel Webster and John Ran- 
dolph were tellers, and they reported that there 
were "for John Quincy Adams, of Massachu- 
setts, thirteen votes ; for Andrew Jackson, of 
Tennessee, seven votes ; for William H. Craw- 



174 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

ford, of Georgia, four votes." Thereupon the 
speaker announced Mr. Adams to have been 
elected President of the United States. 

This end of an unusually exciting contest 
thus left Mr. Adams in possession of the field, 
Mr. Crawford the victim of an irretrievable de- 
feat, Mr. Clay still hopeful and aspiring for a 
future which had only disappointment in store 
for him, General Jackson enraged and revenge- 
ful. Not even Mr. Adams was fully satisfied. 
When the committee waited upon him to in- 
form him of the election, he referred in his re- 
ply to the peculiar state of things and said, 
" could my refusal to accept the trust thus de- 
legated to me give an opportunity to the people 
to form and to express with a nearer approach 
to unanimity the object of their preference, I 
should not hesitate to decline the acceptance of 
this eminent charge and to submit the decision 
of this momentous question again to their de- 
cision." That this singular and striking state- 
ment was made in good faith is highly probable. 
William H. Seward says that it was " unques- 
tionably uttered with great sincerity of heart." 
The test of action of course could not be ap- 
plied, since the resignation of Mr. Adams would 
only have made Mr. Calhoun President, and 
could not have been so arranged as to bring 
about a new election. Otherwise the course of 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 175 

his argument would have been clear ; the fact 
that such action involved an enormous sacrifice 
would have been to his mind strong evidence 
that it was a duty ; and the temptation to per- 
form a duty, always strong with him, became 
ungovernable if the duty was exceptionally dis- 
agreeable. Under the circumstances, however, 
the only logical conclusion lay in the inaugura- 
tion, which took place in the customary simple 
fashion on March 4, 1825. Mr. Adams, we are 
told, was dressed in a black suit, of which all 
the materials were wholly of American man- 
ufacture. Prominent among those who after 
the ceremony hastened to greet him and to 
shake hands with him appeared General Jack- 
son. It was the last time that any friendly 
courtesy is recorded as having passed between 
the two. 

Many men eminent in public affairs have had 
their best years embittered by their failure to 
secure the glittering prize of the Presidency. 
Mr. Adams is perhaps the only person to whom 
the gaining of that proud distinction has been 
in some measure a cause of chagrin. This 
strange sentiment, which he undoubtedly felt, 
was due to the fact that what he had wished 
was not the office in and for itself, but the office 
as a symbol or token of the popular approval. 
He had held important and responsible public 



176 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

positions during substantially his whole active 
life ; he was nearly sixty years old, and, as he 
said, he now for the first time had an oppor- 
tunity to find out in what esteem the people of 
the country held him. What he wished was 
that the people should now express their decided 
satisfaction with him. This he hardly could be 
said to have obtained ; though to be the choice 
of a plurality in the nation and then to be se- 
lected by so intelligent a body of constituents 
as the Representatives of the United States 
involved a peculiar sanction, yet nothing else 
could fully take the place of that national in- 
dorsement which he had coveted. When men 
publicly profess modest depreciation of their 
successes they are seldom believed ; but in his 
private Diary Mr. Adams wrote, on December 
31, 1825 : — 

" The year has been the most momentous of those 
that have passed over my head, inasmuch as it has 
witnessed my elevation at the age of fifty-eight to the 
Chief Magistracy of my countrj^, to the summit of 
laudable or at least blameless worldly ambition ; not 
however in a manner satisfactory to pride or to just 
desire ; not by the unequivocal suffrages of a majority 
of the people ; with perhaps two thirds of the whole 
people adverse to the actual result." 

No President since Washington had ever 
come into office so entirely free from any man- 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 177 

ner of personal obligations or partisan entangle- 
ments, express or implied, as did Mr. Adams. 
Throughout the campaign he had not himseK, 
or by any agent, held out any manner of tacit 
inducement to any person whomsoever, con- 
tingent upon his election. He entered upon 
the Presidency under no indebtedness. He at 
once nominated his Cabinet as follows : Henry 
Clay, Secretary of State ; Richard Rush, Sec- 
retary of the Treasury ; James Barbour, Secre- 
tary of War ; Samuel L. Southard, Secretary 
of the Navy ; William Wirt, Attorney-General. 
The last two were renominations of the incum- 
bents under Monroe. The entire absence of 
chicanery or the use of influence in the distri- 
bution of offices is well illustrated by the fol- 
lowing incident : On the afternoon following 
the day of inauguration President Adams called 
upon Rufus King, whose term of service as Sen- 
ator from New York had just expired, and who 
was preparing to leave Washington on the next 
day. In the course of a conversation concern- 
ino" the nominations which had been sent to the 
Senate that forenoon the President said that 
he had nominated no minister to the English 
court, and 

" asked Mr. King if he would accept that mission. 
His first and immediate impulse was to decline it. He 
said that his determination to retire from the public 



178 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

service had been made up, and that this proposal was 
utterly unexpected to him. Of this I was aware ; but 
I urged upon him a vai'iety of considerations to in- 
duce his acceptance of it. ... I dwelt with earnest- 
ness upon all these motives, and apparently not with- 
out effect. He admitted the force of them, and finally 
promised fully to consider of the jDrojDosal before giv- 
ing me a definite answer." 

The result was an acceptance by Mr. King, 
his nomination by the President, and confirma- 
tion by the Senate. He was an old Federalist, 
to whom Mr. Adams owed no favors. With 
such directness and simplicity were the affairs 
of the Republic conducted. It is a quaint and 
pleasing scene from the period of our fore- 
fathers : the President, without discussion of 
" claims " to a distinguished and favorite post, 
actually selects for it a member of a hostile 
political organization, an old man retiring from 
public life ; then quietly walks over to his 
house, surprises him with the offer, and find- 
ing him reluctant urgently presses upon him 
arguments to induce his acceptance. But the 
whole business of office-seeking and office-dis- 
tributing, now so overshadowing, had no place 
under Mr. Adams. On March 5 he sent in sev- 
eral nominations which were nearly all of pre- 
vious incumbents. " Efforts had been made," 
he writes, " b}'- some of the senators to obtain 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 179 

different nominations, and to introduce a prin- 
ciple of change or rotation in office at the ex- 
piration of these commissions, which would 
make the Government a perpetual and unin- 
termitting scramble for office. A more perni- 
cious expedient could scarcely have been de- 
vised. ... I determined to renominate every 
person against whom there was no complaint 
which would have warranted his removal." A 
notable instance was that of Sterret, naval officer 
at New Orleans, " a noisy and clamorous reviler 
of the Administration," and lately busy in a 
project for insulting a Louisiana Representative 
who had voted for Mr. Adams. Secretary Clay 
was urgent for the removal of this man, plausi- 
bly saying that in the cases of persons holding 
office at the pleasure of the Administration the 
proper course was to avoid on the one hand po- 
litical persecution, and on the other any aj)pear- 
ance of pusillanimity. Mr. Adams replied that 
if Sterret had been actually engaged in insulting 
a representative for the honest and independent 
discharge of duty, he would make the removal 
at once. But the design had not been consum- 
mated, and an intention never carried into effect 
would scarcely justify removal. 

" Besides [he added], should I remove this man 
for this cause it must be upon some fixed principle, 
which would ajDply to others as well as to him. And 



180 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

where was it possible to draw the line ? Of the cus- 
tom-house officers throughout the Union, four fifths in 
all probability were opposed to my election. Craw- 
ford, Secretary of the Treasury, had distributed these 
positions among his own supporters. I had been 
urged very earnestly and from various quarters to 
sweep away my opponents and provide with their 
places for my friends. I can justify the refusal to 
adopt this policy only by the steadiness and consist- 
ency of my adhesion to my own. If I depart from 
this in one instance I shall be called upon by my 
friends to do the same in many. An invidious and 
inquisitorial scrutiny into the personal dispositions of 
public officers will creep through the whole Union, 
and the most selfish and sordid passions will be 
kindled into activity to distort the conduct and mis- 
represent the feelings of men wliose places may be- 
come the prize of slander upon them." 

Mr. Clay was silenced, and Sterret retained 
his position, constituting thereafter only a some- 
what striking instance among many to show 
that nothing was to be lost by political oppo- 
sition to Mr. Adams. 

It was a cruel and discouraging fatality which 
brought about that a man so suicidally upright 
in the matter of patronage should find that the 
bitterest abuse which was heaped upon him was 
founded in an allegation of corruption of pre- 
cisely this nature. When before the election the 
ignoble George Kremer anonymously charged 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 181 

tliat Mr. Clay had sold his friends in the House 
of Representatives to Mr. Adams, " as the 
planter does his negroes or the farmer his team 
and horses ; " when Mr. Clay promptly published 
the unknown writer as " a base and infamous 
calumniator, a dastard and a liar ; " when next 
Kremer, being unmasked, avowed that he would 
make good his charges, but immediately after- 
ward actually refused to appear or testify before 
a Committee of the House instructed to inves- 
tigate the matter, it was supposed by all reason- 
able observers that the outrageous accusation 
was forever laid at rest. But this was by no 
means the case. The author of the slander had 
been personally discredited ; but the slander 
itself had not been destroyed. So shrewdly 
had its devisers who saw future usefulness in it 
managed the matter, that wliile Kremer slunk 
away into obscurity, the story which he had 
told remained an assertion denied, but not dis- 
proved, still open to be believed by suspicious 
or willing friends. With Adams President and 
Clay Secretary of State and General Jackson 
nominated, as he quickly was by the Tennes- 
see Legislature, as a candidate for the next 
Presidential term, the accusation was too plau- 
sible and too tempting to be allowed to fall for- 
ever into dusty death ; rather it was speedily 
exhumed from its shallow burial and galvanized 



182 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

into new life. The partisans of General Jack- 
son sent it to and fro throughout the land. No 
denial, no argument, could kill it. It began to 
gain that sort of half belief which is certain to 
result from constant repetition ; since many 
minds are so constituted that truth may be act- 
ually, as it were, manufactured for them by 
ceaseless iteration of statement, the many hear- 
ings gaining the character of evidence. 

It is long since all students of American his- 
tory, no matter what are their prejudices, or in 
whose interest their researches are prosecuted, 
have branded this accusation as devoid of even 
the most shadowy basis of probability, and it 
now gains no more credit than would a story 
that Adams, Clay, and Jackson had conspired 
together to get Crawford out of their way by 
assassination, and that his paralysis was the 
result of the drugs and potions administered in 
performance of this foul plot. But for a while 
the rumor stalked abroad among the people, 
and many conspicuously bowed down before it 
because it served their purpose, and too many 
others also, it must be confessed, did likewise 
because they were deceived and really believed 
it. Even the legislature of Tennessee were not 
ashamed to give formal countenance to a cal- 
umny in support of which not a particle of evi- 
dence had ever been adduced. In a preamble 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 183 

to certain resolutions passed by this body upon 
this subject in 1827, it was recited that : " Mr. 
Adams desired the office of President ; he went 
into the combination without it, and came out 
with it. Mr. Clay desired that of Secretary of 
State ; he went into the combination without it, 
and came out with it." No other charge could 
have wounded Mr. Adams so keenly; yet no 
course was open to him for refuting the slan- 
der. Mr. Clay, beside himself with a just rage, 
was better able to fight after the fashion of the 
day — if indeed he could only find somebody to 
fight. This he did at last in the person of John 
Eandolph, of Roanoke, who adverted in one 
of his rambling and vituperative harangues to 
" the coalition of Blifil and Black George — the 
combination unheard of till then of the Puritan 
and the blackdeg." This language led naturally 
enough to a challenge from Mr. Clay. The 
parties met ^ and exchanged shots without re- 
sult. The pistols were a second time loaded ; 
Clay fired ; Randolph fired into the air, walked 
up to Clay and without a word gave him his 
hand, which Clay had as it were perforce to 
take. There was no injury done save to the 
skirts of Randolph's long flannel coat which 
were pierced by one of the bullets. 

By way of revenge a duel may be effective if 

1 April 8, 1826. 



184 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

the wrong man does not happen to get shot ; 
but as evidence for intelligent men a bloodier 
ending than this would have been inconclusive. 
It so happened, however, that Jackson, alto- 
gether contrary to his own purpose, brought 
conclusive aid to President Adams and Secre- 
tary Clay. Whether the General ever had any 
real faith in the charge can only be surmised. 
Not improbably he did, for his mental workings 
were so peculiar in their violence and prejudice 
that apparently he always sincerely believed all 
persons who crossed his path to be knaves and 
villains of the blackest dye. But certain it is 
that whether he credited the tale or not he soon 
began to devote himself with all his wonted 
vigor and pertinacity to its wide dissemination. 
Whether in so doing he was stupidly believing a 
lie, or intentionally spreading a known slander, 
is a problem upon which his friends and bio- 
graphers have exhausted much ingenuity with- 
out reaching any certain result. But sure it is 
that early in the year 1827 he was so far carried 
beyond the bounds of prudence as to declare 
before many persons that he had proof of the 
corrupt bargain. The assertion was promptly 
sent to the newspapers by a Mr. Carter Bev- 
erly, one of those who heard it made in the 
presence of several guests at the Hermitage. 
The name of Mr. Beverly, at first concealed, 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 185 

soon became known, and he was of course 
compelled to vouch in his principal. General 
Jackson never deserted his adherents, whether 
their difficulties were noble or ignoble. He 
came gallantly to the aid of Mr. Beverly, and 
in a letter of June 6 declared that early in 
January, 1825, he had been visited by a " mem- 
ber of Congress of high respectability," who 
had told him of " a great intrigue going on " 
of which he ought to be informed. This gen- 
tleman had then proceeded to explain that Mr. 
Clay's friends were afraid that if General Jack- 
son should be elected President, " Mr. Adams 
would be continued Secretar}^ of State (innu- 
endo, there would be no room for Kentucky) ; 
that if I would say, or permit any of my con- 
fidential friends to say, that in case I were 
elected President, Mr. Adams should not be 
continued Secretary of State, by a complete 
union of Mr. Clay and his friends they would 
put an end to the Presidential contest in one 
hour. And he was of opinion it was right to 
fight such intriguers with their own weapons." 
This scarcely disguised suggestion of bargain 
and corruption the General said that he repu- 
diated indignantly. Clay at once publicly chal- 
lenged Jackson to produce some evidence — to 
name the " respectable " member of Congress 
who appeared in the very unrespectable light 



186 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

of advising a candidate for the Presidency to 
emulate the alleged baseness of his opponents. 
Jackson thereupon uncovered James Buchanan, 
of Pennsylvania. Mr. Buchanan was a friend 
of the General, and to what point it may have 
been expected or hoped that his allegiance 
would carry him in support of his chief in this 
dire hour of extremity is matter only of in- 
ference. Fortunately, however, his fealty does 
not appear to have led him any great distance 
from the truth. He yielded to the prevailing 
desire to pass along the responsibility to some 
one else so far as to try to bring in a Mr. Mark- 
ley, who, however, never became more than a 
dumb figure in the drama in which Buchanan 
was obliged to remain as the last important 
character. With obvious reluctance this gen- 
tleman then wrote that if General Jackson had 
placed any such construction as the foregoing 
upon an interview which had occurred between 
them, and which he recited at length, then the 
General had totally misconstrued — as was evi- 
dent enough — what he, Mr. Buchanan, had 
said. Indeed, that Jackson could have sup- 
posed him to entertain the sentiments imputed 
to him made Mr. Buchanan, as he said, " ex- 
ceedingly unhappy." In other words, there was 
no foundation whatsoever for the charge thus 
traced back to an originator who denied having 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 187 

originated it and said that it was all a mistake. 
General Jackson was left to be defended from 
the accusation of deliberate falsehood only by 
the charitable suggestion that he had been un- 
able to understand a perfectly simple conver- 
sation. Apparently Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay 
ought now to be abundantly satisfied, since not 
only were they amply vindicated, but their chief 
vilifier seemed to have been pierced by the 
point which he had sharpened for them. They 
had yet, however, to learn what vitality there is 
in falsehood. 

General Jackson and his friends had alone 
played any active part in this matter. Of these 
friends Mr. Kremer had written a letter of re- 
traction and apology which he was with diffi- 
culty prevented from publishing ; Mr. Buchanan 
had denied all that he had been summoned to 
prove ; a few years later Mr. Beverly wrote and 
sent to Mr. Clay a contrite letter of regret. 
General Jackson alone remained for the rest 
of his life unsilenced, obstinately reiterating a 
charge disproved by his own witnesses. But 
worse than all this, accumulations of evidence 
long and laboriously sought in many quarters 
have established a tolerably strong probability 
that advances of precisely the character alleged 
against Mr. Adams's friends were made to Mro 
Clay by the most intimate personal associates 



188 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

of General Jackson. The discussion of this 
unpleasant suspicion would not, however, be an 
excusable episode in this short volume. The 
reader who is curious to pursue the matter fur- 
ther will find all the documentary evidence col- 
lected in its original shape in the first volume 
of Colton's " Life of Clay," accompanied by an 
argument needlessly elaborate and surcharged 
with feeling yet in the main sufficiently fair 
and exhaustive. 

Mr. Benton says that "no President could 
have commenced his administration under more 
unfavorable auspices, or with less expectation 
of a popular career," than did Mr. Adams. 
From the first a strong minority in the House 
of Representatives was hostile to him, and the 
next election made this a majority. The first 
indication of the shape which the opposition 
was to take became visible in the vote in the 
Senate upon confirming Mr. Clay as Secretary 
of State. There were fourteen nays against 
twenty-seven yeas, and an inspection of the 
list showed that the South was beginning to 
consolidate more closely than heretofore as a 
sectional force in politics. The formation of 
a Southern party distinctly organized in the 
interests of slavery, already apparent in the 
unanimity of the Southern Electoral Colleges 
against Mr. Adams, thus received further illus- 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 189 

tration ; and the skilled eye of the President 
noted " the rallying of the South and of South- 
ern interests and prejudices to the men of the 
South." It is possible now to see plainly that 
Mr. Adams was really the first leader in the long 
crusade against slavery ; it was in opposition to 
him that the South became a political unit ; and 
a true instinct taught him the trend of Southern 
politics long before the Northern statesmen ap- 
prehended it, perhaps before even any Southern 
statesman had distinctly formulated it. This 
new development in the politics of the country 
soon received further illustration. The first 
message which Mr. Adams had occasion to send 
to Congress gave another opportunity to his ill- 
wishers. Therein he stated that the invitation 
which had been extended to the United States 
to be represented at the Congress of Panama 
had been accepted, and that he should commis- 
sion ministers to attend the meeting. Neither 
in matter nor in manner did this proposition 
contain any just element of offence. It was 
customary for the Executive to initiate new 
missions simply by the nomination of envoys to 
fill them ; and in such case the Senate, if it did 
not think the suggested mission desirable, could 
simply decline to confirm the nomination upon 
that ground. An example of this has been 
already seen in the two nominations of Mr. 



190 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

Adams himself to the Court of Russia in the 
Presidency of Mr. Madison. But now vehement 
assaults were made upon the President, alike 
in the Senate and in the House, on the utterly- 
absurd ground that he had transcended his 
powers. Incredible, too, as it may seem at this 
day it was actually maintained that there was 
no occasion whatsoever for the United States 
to desire representation at such a gathering. 
Prolonged and bitter was the opposition which 
the Administration was compelled to encounter 
in a measure to which there so obviously ought 
to have been instant assent if considered solely 
upon its intrinsic merits, but upon which never- 
theless the discussion actually overshadowed 
all other questions which arose during the ses- 
sion. The President had the good fortune to 
find the powerful aid of Mr. Webster enlisted 
in his behalf, and ultimately he prevailed ; but 
it was of ill augury at this early date to see 
that personal hostility was so widespread and 
so rancorous that it could make such a pro- 
longed and desperate resistance with only the 
faintest pretext of right as a basis for its action. 
Yet a great and fundamental cause of the feel- 
ing manifested lay hidden away beneath the 
surface in the instinctive antipathy of the slave- 
holders to Mr. Adams and all his thoughts, 
his ways, and his doings. For into this ques- 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 191 

tion of countenancing the Panama Congress, 
slavery and " the South " entered and imported 
into a portion of the opposition a certain ele- 
ment of reasonableness and propriety in a po- 
litical sense. When we see the Southern states- 
men banded against President Adams in these 
debates, as we know the future which was hid- 
den from them, it almost makes us believe that 
their vindictiveness was justified by an instinc- 
tive forecasting of his character and his mission 
in life, and that without knowing it they al- 
ready felt the influence of the acts which he was 
yet to do against them. For the South, with- 
out present dread of an abolition movement, yet 
hated this Panama Congress with a contempt- 
uous loathing not alone because the South 
American states had freed all slaves within 
their limits, but because there was actually a 
fair chance that Hayti would be admitted to 
representation at the sessions as a sovereign 
state. That the President of the United States 
should propose to send white citizens of that 
country to sit cheek by jowl on terms of offi- 
cial equality with the revolted blacks of Hayti 
fired the Southern heart with rage inexpres- 
sible. The proposition was a further infusion 
of cement to aid in the Southern consolidation 
so rapidly going forward, and was substantially 
the beginning of the sense of personal aliena- 



192 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

tion henceforth to grow steadily more bitter on 
the part of the slaveholders towards Mr. Adams. 
Without designing it he had struck the first 
blow in a fight which was to absorb his energies 
for the rest of his life. 

Such evil forebodings as might too easily be 
drawn from the course of this debate were soon 
and amply fulfilled. The opposition increased 
rapidly until when Congress came together in 
December, 1827, it had attained overshadowing 
proportions. Not only was a member of that 
party elected Speaker of the House of Represent- 
atives, but a decided majority of both Houses 
of Congress was arrayed against the Adminis- 
tration — "a state of things which had never 
before occurred under the Government of the 
United States." All the committees too were 
composed of four opposition and only three 
Administration members. With more excit- 
ing issues this relationship of the executive and 
legislative departments might have resulted in 
dangerous collisions ; but in this season of po- 
litical quietude it only made the position of the 
President extremely uncomfortable. Mr. Van 
Buren soon became recognized as the formid- 
able leader and organizer of the Jackson forces. 
His capacity as a political strategist was so far 
in advance of that of any other man of those 
times that it might have secured success even 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 193 

had he been encountered by tactics similar to 
his own. But since on the contrary he had only 
to meet straightforward simplicity, it was soon 
apparent that he would have everything his 
own way. It was disciplined troops against the 
militia of honest merchants and farmers ; and 
the result was not to be doubted. Mr. Adams 
and his friends were fond of comparing Van 
Buren with Aaron Burr, though predicting that 
he would be too shrewd to repeat Burr's blun- 
ders. From the beginning they declined to 
meet with his own weapons a man whom they 
so contemned. It was about this time that a 
new nomenclature of parties was introduced into 
our politics. The administrationists called them- 
selves National Republicans, a name which in a 
few years was changed for that of Whigs, while 
the opposition or Jacksonians were known as 
Democrats, a title which has been ever since 
retained by the same party. 

The story of Mr. Adams's Administration will 
detain the historian, and even the biographer, 
only a very short time. Not an event occurred 
during those four years which appears of any 
especial moment. Our foreign relations were 
all pacific ; and no grave crisis or great issue was 
developed in domestic affairs. It was a period 
of tranquillity, in which the nation advanced 
rapidly in prosperity. For ipany years dulness 



194 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

had reigned in business, but returning activity 
was encouraged by the policy of the new Gov- 
ernment, and upon all sides various industries 
became active and thriving. So far as the rule 
of Mr. Adams was marked by any distinguish-, 
ing characteristic, it was by a care for the ma- 
terial welfare of the people. More commercial 
treaties were negotiated during his Administra- 
tion than in the thirty-six years preceding his 
inauguration. He was a strenuous advocate of 
internal improvements, and happily the condi- 
tion of the national finances enabled the Gov- 
ernment to embark in enterprises of this kind. 
He suggested many more than were undertaken, 
but not perhaps more than it would have been 
quite possible to carry out. He was always 
chary of making a show of himself before the 
people for the sake of gaining popularity. 
When invited to attend the annual exhibition 
of the Maryland Agricultural Society, shortly 
after his inauguration, he declined, and wrote in 
his Diary : " To gratify this wish I must give 
four days of my time, no trifle of expense, and 
set a precedent for being claimed as an article of 
exhibition at all the cattle-shows throughout the 
Union." Other gatherings would prefer equally 
reasonable demands, in responding to which 
" some duty must be neglected." But the open- 
ing of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was an 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 195 

event sufficiently momentous and national in its 
character to justify the President's attendance. 
He was requested in the presence of a great 
concourse of people to dig the first shovelful of 
earth and to make a brief address. The speech- 
making was easy ; but when the digging was to 
be done he encountered some unexpected obstacle 
and the soil did not yield to his repeated efforts. 
Not to be defeated, however, he stripped off his 
coat, went to work in earnest with the spade and 
raised the earth successfully. Naturally such 
readiness was hailed with loud applause and 
pleased the great crowd who saw it. But in Mr. 
Adams's career it was an exceptional occurrence 
that enabled him to conciliate a momentary 
popularity ; it was seldom that he enjoyed or 
used an opportunity of gaining the cheap admi- 
ration or shallow friendship of the multitude. 

At least one moral to be drawn from the story 
of Mr. Adams's Presidency perhaps deser\^es 
rather to be called an immoral, and certainly 
furnishes unwelcome support to those persons 
who believe that conscientiousness is out of place 
in politics. It has been said that no sooner was 
General Jackson fairly defeated than he was 
again before the people as a candidate for the 
next election. An opposition to the new Admin- 
istration was in process of formation actually 
before there had been time for that Administra- 



196 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

tion to declare, much less to carry out, any 
policy or even any measure. The opposition 
was therefore not one of principle ; it was not 
dislike of anything done or to be done ; it did 
not pretend to have a purpose of saving the 
people from blunders or of offering them greater 
advantages. It was simply an opposition, or 
more properly an hostility, to the President and 
his Cabinet, and was conducted by persons who 
wished in as short a time as possible themselves 
to control and fill those positions. The sole 
ground upon which these opponents stood was, 
that they would rather have General Jackson at 
the head of affairs than Mr. Adams. The issue 
was purely personal ; it was so when the oppo- 
sition first developed, and it remained so until 
that opposition triumphed. 

Under no circumstances can it be more ex- 
cusable for an elective magistrate to seek per- 
sonal good will towards himself than when his 
rival seeks to supplant him simply on the basis 
of enjoying a greater measure of such good will. 
Had any important question of policy been di- 
viding the people, it would have been easy for a 
man of less moral courage and independence than 
belonged to Mr. Adams to select the side which 
be thought right, and to await the outcome at 
least with constancy. But the only real ques- 
tion raised was this: will Mr. Adams or Gen- 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 197 

eral Jackson — two individuals representing as 
yet no antagonistic policies — be preferred by 
the greater number of voters in 1829 ? If, how- 
ever, there was no great apparent issue open be- 
tween these two men, at least there was a very 
wide difference between their characters, a point 
of some consequence in a wholly personal com- 
petition. It is easy enough now to see how this 
gaping difference displayed itself from the be- 
ginning, and how the advantage for winning 
was throughout wholly on the side of Jackson. 
The course to be pursued by Mr. Adams in order 
to insure victory was obvious enough ; being sim- 
ply to secure the largest following and most 
efficient support possible. The arts by which 
these objects were to be attained were not ob- 
scure nor beyond his power. If he wished a 
second term, as beyond question he did, two 
methods were of certain utility. He should 
make the support of his Administration a source 
of profit to the supporters ; and he should con- 
ciliate good will by every means that offered. 
To the former end what more efficient means 
could be devised than a body of office-holders 
owing their positions to his appointment and 
likely to have the same term of office as him- 
self? His neglect to create such a corps of 
stanch supporters cannot be explained on the 
ground that so plain a scheme of perpetuating 



198 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

power had not then been devised in the Repub- 
lic. Mr. Jefferson had practised it, to an extent 
which now seems moderate, but which had been 
sufficiently extensive to deprive any successor 
of the honor of novelty in originating it. The 
times were ripe for it, and the nation would not 
have revolted at it, as was made apparent when 
General Jackson, succeeding Mr. Adams, at 
once carried out the system with a thoroughness 
that has never been surpassed, and with a suc- 
cess in achieving results so great that almost 
no politician has since failed to have recourse 
to the same practice. Suggestions and temp- 
tations, neither of which were wanting, were 
however alike thrown away upon Mr. Adams. 
Friendship or hostility to the President were 
the only two matters which were sure to have 
no effect whatsoever upon the fate of an incum- 
bent or an aspirant. Scarcely any removals 
were made during his Administration, and every 
one of the few was based solely upon a proved 
unfitness of the official. As a consequence very 
few new appointments were made, and in every 
instance the apj^ointee was, or was believed to 
be, the fittest man without regard to his political 
bias. This entire elimination of the question of 
party allegiance from every department of the 
public service was not a specious protestation, 
but an undeniable fact at which friends grum- 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 199 

bled bitterly, and upon which foes counted often 
with an ungenerous but always with an imjjlicit 
reliance. It was well known, for example, that 
in the Customs Department there were many 
more avowed opponents than supporters of the 
Administration. What was to be thought, the 
latter angrily asked, of a president who refused 
to make any distinction between the sheep and 
the goats ? But while Mr. Adams, unmoved by 
argument, anger, or entreaty, thus alienated 
many and discouraged all, every one was made 
acquainted with the antipodal principles of his 
rival. The consequence was inevitable ; many 
abandoned Adams from sheer irritation ; multi- 
tudes became cool and indifferent concerning 
him ; the great number of those whose political 
faith was so weak as to be at the ready com- 
mand of their own interests, or the interests of 
a friend or relative, yielded to a pressure against 
which no counteracting force was employed. In 
a word, no one who had not a strong and inde- 
pendent personal conviction in behalf of Mr. 
Adams found the slightest inducement to belong 
to his party. It did not require much political 
sagacity to see that in quiet times, with no great 
issue visibly at stake, a following thus composed 
could not include a majority of the nation. It is 
true that in fact there was opening an issue as 
great as has ever been presented to the Ameri- 



200 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

can people, — an issue between government con- 
ducted with a sole view to efficiency and honesty 
and government conducted very largely, if not 
exclusively, with a view to individual and party 
ascendency. The new system afterward inaug- 
urated by General Jackson, directly opposite to 
that of Mr. Adams and presenting a contrast to 
it as wide as is to be found in history, makes 
this fact glaringly plain to us. But during the 
years of Mr. Adams's Administration it was 
dimly perceived only by a few. Only one side 
of the shield had then been shown. The people 
did not appreciate that Adams and Jackson 
were representatives of two conflicting princi- 
ples of administration which went to the very 
basis of our system of government. Had the 
issue been as apparent and as well understood 
then as it is now, in retrospect, the decision of 
the nation might have been different. But un- 
fortunately the voters only beheld two individ- 
uals pitted against each other for the popular 
suffrage, of whom one, a brilliant soldier, would 
stand by and reward his friends, and the other, 
an uninteresting civilian, ignored all distinction 
between friend and foe. 

It was not alone in the refusal to use patron- 
age that Mr. Adams's rigid conscientiousness 
showed itself. He was equally obstinate in de- 
clining ever to stretch a point however slightly 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 201 

in order to win the favor of any body of the 
people whether large or small. He was warned 
that his extensive schemes for internal improve- 
ment would alienate especially the important 
State of Virginia. He could not of course be 
expected to change his policy out of respect 
to Virginian prejudices ; but he was advised to 
mitigate his expression of that policy, and to 
some extent it was open to him to do so. But 
he would not ; his utterances went the full 
length of his opinions, and he persistently urged 
upon Congress many plans which he approved, 
but which he could not have the faintest hopes 
of seeing adopted. The consequence was that 
he displeased Virginia. He notes the fact in 
the Diary in the tone of one who endures per- 
secution for righteousness' sake, and who means 
to be very stubborn in his righteousness. Again 
it was suggested to him to embody in one of his 
messages " something soothing for South Caro- 
lina." But there stood upon the statute books 
of South Carolina an unconstitutional law which 
had greatly embarrassed the national govern- 
ment, and which that rebellious little State with 
characteristic contumaciousness would not re- 
peal. Under such circumstances, said Mr. 
Adams, I have no " soothing " words for South 
Carolina. 

It was not alone by what he did and by what 



202 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

he would not do that Mr. Adams tolled to in- 
sure the election of General Jackson far more 
sedulously and efficiently than did the General 
himself or any of his partisans. In most cases 
it was probably the manner quite as much as 
the act which made Mr. Adams unpopular. In 
his anxiety to be upright he was undoubtedly 
prone to be needlessly disagreeable. His un- 
compromising temper put on an ungracious as- 
pect. His conscientiousness wore the appear- 
ance of oifensiveness. The Puritanism in his 
character was strongly tinged with that old New 
England notion that whatever is disagreeable is 
probably right, and that a painful refusal would 
lose half its merit in being expressed courteously ; 
that a right action should never be done in a 
pleasing way ; not only that no pill should be 
sugar-coated, but that the bitteresj;^ngredient 
should be placed on the outside. ' In repudiat- 
ing attractive vices the Puritans had rejected 
also those amenities which might have decently 
f concealed or even mildly decorated the forbid- 
f ding angularities of a naked Virtue which cer- 
I tainly did not imitate the form of any goddess 
V^who had ever before attracted followers./ Mr. 
Adams was a complete and thorough Puritan, 
wonderfully little modified by times and circum- 
stances. The ordinary arts of propitiation 
would have appeared to him only a feeble and 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 203 

diluted form of dishonesty; while suavity and 
graciousness of demeanor would have seemed as 
unbecoming to this rigid official as love-making 
or wine-bibbing seem to a strait-laced parson. 
It was inevitable, therefore, that he should never 
avert by his words any ill-will naturally caused 
by his acts ; that he should never soothe disap- 
pointment, or attract calculating selfishness. He 
was an adept in alienation, a novice in concilia- 
tion. His magnetism was negative. He made 
few friends ; and had no interested following 
whatsoever. No one was enthusiastic on his be- 
half ; no band worked for him with the ardor of 
personal devotion. His party was composed of 
those who had sufficient intelligence to appre- 
ciate his integrity and sufficient honesty to ad- 
mire it. These persons respected him, and when 
election day came they would vote for him ; but 
they did not canvass zealously in his behalf, nor 
do such service for him as a very different kind 
of feeling induced the Jackson men to do for 
their candidate.^ The fervid laborers in pol- 

^ Mr. Mills, in "writing" of Mr. Adams's inatig-uration, ex- 
pressed well what many felt. " This same President of ours 
is a man that I can never court nor be on very familiar terms 
with. There is a cold, repulsive atmosphere about him that is 
too chilling- for my respiration, and I shall certainly keep at a 
distance from its influence. I wish him God-speed in his Ad- 
ministration, and am heartily disposed to lend him my feeble 
aid whenever he may need it in a correct couise j but he can' 



204 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

itics left Mr. Adams alone in his chillina" re- 
spectability, and went over to a camp where 
all scruples were consumed in the glowing heat 
of a camj)aign conducted upon the single and 
simple principle of securing victory. 

Mr. Adams's relations with the members of 
his Cabinet were friendly throughout his term. 
Men of their character and ability, brought 
into daily contact with him, could not fail to 
appreciate and admire the purity of his motives 
and the patriotism of his conduct ; nor was he 
wanting in a measure of consideration and def- 
erence towards them perhajis somewhat greater 
•than might have been expected from him, some- 
times even carried to the point of yielding his 

not expect me to become his warm and devoted partisan." A 
like sentiment was expressed also much more vigorously by 
Ezekiel Webster to Daniel Webster, in a letter of February 15, 
1829. The writer there attributes the defeat of Mr. Adams 
to personal dislike to him. People, he said, " always sup- 
ported his cause from a cold sense of duty," and " we soon sat- 
isfy ourselves that we have discharged our duty to the cause 
of any man when we do not entertain for him one personal 
kind feeling, nor cannot unless we disembowel ourselves like a 
trussed turkey of all that is human nature within us." With 
a candidate "of popular character, like Mr. Clay," the result 
would have been different. " The measures of his [Adams's] 
Administration were just and wise and every honest man 
should have supported them, but many honest men did not for 
the reason I have mentioned." — Webster^s Private Corre- 
spondence, vol. i. p. 469. 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 205 

opinion in matters of consequence. It was his 
wish that the unity o£ the body should remain 
unbroken during his four years of office, and 
the wish was very nearly realized. Unfortu- 
nately, however, in his last year it became neces- 
sary for him to fill the mission to England, and 
Governor Barbour was extremely anxious for 
the place. It was already apparent that the 
coming election was likely to result in the suc- 
cession of Jackson, and Mr. Adams notes that 
Barbour's extreme desire to receive the appoint- 
ment was due to his wish to find a good harbor 
ere the approaching storm should burst. The 
remark was made without anger, in the tone of 
a man who had seen enough of the world not to 
expect too much from any of his fellow men ; 
and the appointment was made, somewhat to 
the chagrin of Webster and Rush, either one 
of whom would have gladly accepted it. The 
vacancy thus caused, the only one which arose 
during his term, was filled by General Peter B. 
Porter, a gentleman whom Mr. Adams selected 
not as his own choice, but out of respect to the 
wishes of the Cabinet, and in order to " termi- 
nate the Administration in harmony with itself." 
The only seriously unpleasant occurrence was 
the treachery of Postmaster-General McLean, 
who saw fit to profess extreme devotion to Mr. 
Adams while secretly aiding General Jackson. 



206 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

His perfidy was not undetected, and great pres- 
sure was brought to bear on the President to 
remove him. Mr. Adams, however, refused to 
do so, and McLean had the satisfaction of step- 
ping from his post under Mr. Adams into a 
judgeship conferred by General Jackson, hav- 
ing shown his impartiality and judicial turn of 
mind, it is to be supposed, by declaring his 
warm allegiance to each master in turn. 

The picture of President Adams's daily life 
is striking in its simplicity and its laboriousness. 
This chief magistrate of a great nation was 
wont to rise before daybreak, often at four or 
^YB o'clock even in winter, not unfrequently to 
build and light his own fire, and to work hard 
for hours when most persons in busy life were 
still comfortably slumbering. The forenoon and 
afternoon he devoted to public affairs, and often 
he complains that the unbroken stream of vis- 
itors gives him little opportunity for hard or 
continuous labor. Such work he was compelled 
to do chiefly in the evening ; and he did not al- 
ways make up for early hours of rising by a 
correspondingly early bedtime ; though some- 
times in the summer we find him going to bed 
between eight and nine o'clock, an hour which 
probably few Presidents have kept since then. 
He strove to care for his health by daily exer- 
cise. In the morning he swam in the Potomac, 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 207 

often for a long time ; and more than once he 
encountered no small risk in this pastime. Dur- 
ing the latter part of his Presidential term he 
tried riding on horseback. At times when the 
weather compelled him to walk, and business 
was pressing, he used to get his daily modicum 
of fresh air before the sun was up. A life of 
this kind with more of hardship than of relax- 
ation in it was ill fitted to sustain in robust 
health a man sixty years of age, and it is not 
surprising that Mr. Adams often complained of 
feeling ill, dejected, and weary. Yet he never 
spared himself, nor apparently thought his 
habits too severe, and actually toward the close 
of his term he spoke of his trying daily routine 
as constituting a very agreeable life. He usually 
began the day by reading " two or three chap- 
ters in the Bible with Scott's and Hewlett's 
Commentaries," being always a profoundly reli- 
gious man of the old-fashioned school then pre- 
valent in New England. 

It could hardly have added to the meagre 
comforts of such a life to be threatened with 
assassination. Yet this danger was thrust upon 
Mr. Adams's attention upon one occasion at 
least under circumstances which gave to it a 
very serious aspect. The tranquillity with which 
he went through the affair showed that his 
physical courage was as imperturbable as his 



208 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

moral. The risk was protracted throughout a 
considerable period, but he never let it disturb 
the even tenor of his daily behavior or warp 
his actions in the slightest degree, save only 
that when he was twice or thrice brought face 
to face with the intending assassin he treated 
the fellow with somewhat more curt brusque- 
ness than was his wont. But when the danger 
was over he bore his would-be murderer no 
malice, and long afterward actually did him a 
kindly service. 

Few men in public life have been subjected to 
trials of temper so severe as vexed Mr. Adams 
during his Presidential term. To play an in- 
tensely exciting game strictly in accordance with 
rigid moral rules of the player's own arbitrary 
enforcement, and which are utterly repudiated 
by a less scrupulous antagonist, can hardly 
tend to promote contentment and amiability. 
Neither are slanders and falsehoods mollifying 
applications to a statesman inspired with an up- 
right and noble ambition. Mr. Adams bore 
such assaults, ranging from the charge of having 
corruptly bought the Presidency down to that of 
being a Freemason with such grim stoicism as 
he could command. The disappearance and 
probable assassination of Morgan at this time 
led to a strong feeling throughout the country 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 209 

against Freemasonry, and the eTackson men at 
once proclaimed abroad that Adams was one of 
the brotherhood, and offered, if he should deny 
it, to produce the records of the lodge to which 
he belonged. The allegation was false ; he was 
not a Mason, and his friends urged him to say 
so publicly ; but he replied bitterly that his 
denial would probably at once be met by a com- 
plete set of forged records of a fictitious lodge, 
and the people would not know whom to be- 
lieve. Next he was said to have bargained for 
the support of Daniel Webster, by promising 
to distribute offices to Federalists. This accusa- 
tion was a cruel perversion of his very virtues ; 
for its only foundation lay in the fact that in 
the venturesome but honorable attempt to be 
President of a nation rather than of a party, 
he had in some instances given offices to old 
Federalists, certainly with no hope or possibil- 
ity of reconciling to himself the almost useless 
wreck of that now powerless and shrunken 
party, one of whose liveliest traditions was 
hatred of him. Stories were even set afloat 
that some of his accounts, since he had been 
in the public service, were incorrect. But the 
most extraordinary and ridiculous tale of all 
was that during his residence in Russia he had 
prostituted a beautiful American girl, whom he 
then had in his service, in order " to seduce the 



210 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

passions of the Emperor Alexander and sway 
him to political purposes." 

These and other like provocations were not 
only discouraging but very irritating, and Mr. 
Adams was not of that careless disposition 
which is little affected by unjust accusation. 
On the contrary he was greatly incensed by 
such treatment, and though he made the most 
stern and persistent effort to endure an inev- 
itable trial with a patience born of philosophy, 
since indifference was not at his command, yet 
he could not refrain from the expression of his 
sentiments in his secret communings. Occa- 
sionally he allowed his wrath to explode with 
harmless violence between the covers of the 
Diary, and doubtless he found relief while he 
discharged his fierce diatribes on these private 
sheets. His vituperative power was great, and 
some specimens of it may not come amiss in a 
sketch of the man. The senators who did not 
call upon him he regarded as of " rancorous 
spirit." He spoke of the falsehoods and misre- 
presentations which " the skunks of party slander 
. . . have been . . . squirting round the House 
of Kepresentatives, thence to issue and perfume 
the atmosj^here of the Union." His most in- 
tense hatred and vehement denunciation were 
reserved for John Randolph, whom he thought 
an abomination too odious and despicable to be 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 211 

described in words, "the Image and superscrip- 
tion of a great man stamped upon base metal." 
"The besotted violence" of Randolph, he said, 
has deprived hira of "all right to personal 
civility from me ; " and certainly this excom- 
munication from courtesy was made complete 
and effective. He speaks again of the same 
victim as a "frequenter of gin lane and beer 
alley." He indignantly charges that Calhoun, 
as Speaker, permitted Randolph " in speeches of 
ten hours long to drink himself drunk with 
bottled porter, and in raving balderdash of the 
meridian of Wapping to revile the absent and 
the present, the living and the dead." This, he 
says, was " tolerated by Calhoun, because Ran- 
dolph's ribaldry was all pointed against the 
Administration, especially against Mr. Clay and 
me." Again he writes of Randolph : " The 
rancor of this man's soul against me is that 
which sustains his life : the agony of [his] 
envy and hatred of me, and the hope of effect- 
ing my downfall, are [his] chief remaining 
sources of vitality. The issue of the Presiden- 
tial election will kill [him] by the gratification 
of [his] revenge." So it was also with W. B. 
Giles, of Virginia. But Giles's abuse was easier 
to bear since it had been poured in torrents 
upon every reputable man, from Washington 
downwards, who had been prominent in public 



212 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

affairs since the adoption of the Constitution, 
so that Giles's memory is now preserved from 
oblivion solely by the connection which he es- 
tablished with the great and honorable states- 
men of the Republic by a course of ceaseless 
attacks upon them. Some of the foregoing ex- 
pressions of Mr. Adams may be open to objec- 
tion on the score of good taste ; but the provo- 
cation was extreme ; public retaliation he would 
not practise, and wrath must sometimes burst 
forth in language which was not so unusual in 
that day as it is at present. It is an unques- 
tionable fact, of which the credit to Mr. Adams 
can hardly be exaggerated, that he never in 
any single instance found an excuse for an un- 
worthy act on his own part in the fact that com- 
petitors or adversaries were resorting to such 
expedients. 

The election of 1828 gave 178 votes for Jack- 
son and only 83 for Adams. Calhoun was con- 
tinued as Vice-President by 171 votes, showing 
plainly enough that even yet there were not 
two political parties, in any customary or proper 
sense of the phrase. The victory of Jackson had 
been foreseen by every one. What had been so 
generally anticipated cftild not take Mr. Adams 
by surprise ; yet it was idle for him to seek to 
conceal his disappointment that an Administra- 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 213 

tion which he had conducted with his best abil- 
ity and with thorough conscientiousness should 
not have seemed to the people worthy of con- 
tinuance for another term. Little suspecting 
what the future had in store for him, he felt that 
his public career had culminated and probably 
had closed forever, and that if it had not closed 
exactly in disgrace, yet at least it could not be 
regarded as ending gloriously or even satisfac- 
torily. But he summoned all his philosophy and 
fortitude to his aid ; he fell back upon his clear 
conscience and comported himself with dignity, 
showing all reasonable courtesy to his successor 
and only perhaps seeming a little deficient in 
filial piety in presenting so striking a contrast 
to the shameful conduct of his father in a like 
crucial hour. His retirement brought to a close 
a list of Presidents who deserved to be called 
statesmen in the highest sense of that term, hon- 
orable men, pure patriots, and, with perhaps one 
exception, all of the first order of ability in pub- 
lic affairs. It is necessary to come far down to- 
wards this day before a worthy successor of those 
ofreat men is met with in the list. Dr. Von 
Hoist, by far the ablest writer who has yet dealt 
with American history, says : "In the person of 
Adams the last statesman who was to occupy it 
for a long time left the White House." Gen- 
eral Jackson, the candidate of the populace and 



214 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

tlie representative hero of tlie ignorant masses, 
instituted a new system of administering the 
Government in which personal interests became 
the most important element, and that organiza- 
tion and strategy were developed which have 
since become known and infamous under the 
name of the " political machine." 

While Mr. Adams bore his defeat like a phi- 
losopher, he felt secretly very depressed and un- 
happy by reason of it. He speaks of it as leav- 
ing his "character and reputation a wreck," 
and says that the " sun of his political life sets 
in the deepest gloom." On January 1, 1829, 
he writes : " The year begins in gloom. My 
wife had a sleepless and painful night. The 
dawn was overcast, and as I began to write my 
shaded lamp went out, self-extinguished. It 
was only for lack of oil, and the notice of so 
trivial an incident may serve but to mark the 
present temper of my mind." It is painful to 
behold a man of his vigor, activity, and courage 
thus prostrated. Again he writes : — 

" Three days more and I shall be restored to pri- 
vate life, and left to an old age of retirement though 
certainly not of repose. I go into it with a combina- 
tion of parties and public men against my character 
and reputation, such as I believe never before was 
exhibited against any man since this Union existed. 
Posterity will scarcely believe it; but so it is, that this 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 215 

combination against me has been formed and is now 
exulting in triumjDh over me, for the devotion of my 
life and of all the faculties of my soul to the Union, 
and to the improvement, physical, moral, and intel- 
lectual of my country." 

Melancholy words these to be written by an 
old man who had worked so hard and been so 
honest, and whose ambition had been of the 
kind that ennobles him who feels it ! Could the 
curtain of the future have been lifted but for 
a moment what relief would the glimpse have 
brought to his crushed and wearied spirit. But 
though coming events may cast shadows before 
them, they far less often send bright rays in ad- 
vance. So he now resolved "to go into the 
deepest retirement and withdraw from all con- 
nection with public affairs." Yet it was with 
regret that he foretold this fate, and he looked 
forward with solicitude to the effect which such 
a mode of life, newly entered upon at his age, 
would have upon his mind and character. He 
hopes rather than dares to predict that he will 
be provided " with useful and profitable occupa- 
tion, engaging so much of his thoughts and feel- 
ings that his mind may not be left to corrode 
itself." 

His return to Quincy held out the less pro- 
mise of comfort, because the old chasm between 
him and the Federalist gentlemen of Boston had 



216 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

been lately reopened. Certain malicious news- 
paper paragraphs, born of the mischievous spirit 
of the wretched Giles, had recently set afloat 
some stories designed seriously to injure Mr. Ad- 
ams. These were, substantially, that in 1808-9 
he had been convinced that some among the 
leaders of the Federalist party in New Eng- 
land were entertaining a project for separation 
from the Union, that he had feared that this 
event would be promoted by the embargo, that 
he foresaw that the seceding portion would in- 
evitably be compelled into some sort of alliance 
with Great Britain, that he suspected negotia- 
tions to this end to have been already set on 
foot, that he thereupon gave privately some 
more or less distinct intimations of these no- 
tions of his to sundry prominent Republicans, 
and even to President Jefferson. These tales, 
much distorted from the truth and exaggerated 
as usual, led to the publication of an open letter, 
in November, 1828, addressed by thirteen Fed- 
eralists of note in Massachusetts to John Quincy 
Adams, demanding names and specifications and 
the production of evidence. Mr. Adams replied 
briefly, with dignity, and, considering the cir- 
cumstances, with good temper, stating fairly the 
substantial import of what he had really said, 
declaring that he had never mentioned names, 
and refusing, for good reasons given, either to 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 217 

do so now or to publish the grounds of such 
opinions as he had entertained. It was suffi- 
ciently clear that he had said nothing secretly 
which he had reason to regret ; and that if he 
sought to shun the discussion opened by his ad- 
versaries, he was influenced by wise forbearance, 
and not at all by any fear of the consequences 
to himself. A dispassionate observer could 
have seen that behind this moderate, rather de- 
precatory letter there was an abundant reserve 
of controversial material held for the moment 
in check. But his adversaries were not dispas- 
sionate ; on the contrary they were greatly ex- 
cited and were honestly convinced of the perfect 
goodness of their cause. They were men of 
the highest character in public and private life, 
deservedly of the best repute in the community, 
of unimpeachable integrity in motives and deal- 
ings, influential and respected, men whom it was 
impossible in New England to treat with neg- 
lect or indifference. For this reason it was only 
the harder to remain silent beneath their pub- 
lished reproach when a refutation was possible. 
Hating Mr. Adams with an animosity not dimin- 
ished by the lapse of years since his defection 
from their party, strong in a consciousness of 
their own standing before their fellow citizens, 
the thirteen notables responded with much ac- 
rimony to Mr. Adams's unsatisfactory letter. 



218 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

Tims persistently challenged and assailed, at a 
time when his recent crushing political defeat 
made an attack upon him seem a little ungen- 
erous, Mr. Adams at last went into the fight 
in earnest. He had the good fortune to be 
thoroughly right, and also to have sufficient 
evidence to prove and justify at least as much 
as he had ever said. All this evidence he 
brought together in a vindicatory pamj)hlet, 
which, however, by the time he had completed 
it he decided not to publish. But fortunately 
he did not destroy it, and his grandson, in the 
exercise of a wise discretion, has lately given it 
to the world. His foes never knew how deeply 
they were indebted to the self-restraint which 
induced him to keep this formidable missive 
harmless in his desk. Full of deep feeling, yet 
free from ebullitions of temper, clear in state- 
ment, concise in style, conclusive in facts, un- 
answerable in argument, unrelentingly severe 
in dealing with opponents, it is as fine a sjieci- 
men of political controversy as exists in the 
language. Its historical value cannot be ex- 
aggerated, but apart from this as a mere liter- 
ary production it is admirable. Happy were 
the thirteen that they one and all went down to 
their graves complaisantly thinking that they 
had had the last word in the quarrel, little sus- 
pecting how great was their obligation to Mr. 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 219 

Adams for having granted them that privilege. 
One would tliink that they might have writhed 
beneath their moss-grown headstones on the day 
when his last word at length found public ut- 
terance, albeit that the controversy had then 
become one of the dusty tales of history.^ 

But this task of writing a demolishing pam- 
phlet against the prominent gentlemen of the 
neighborhood to which he was about to return 
for his declining years could hardly have been a 
grateful task. The passage from political dis- 
aster to social enmities could not but be painful ; 
and Mr. Adams was probably never more un- 
happy than at this period of his life. The re- 
ward which virtue was tendering to him seemed 
immixed bitterness. 

Thus at the age of sixty-two years, Mr. Ad- 
ams found himself that melancholy product of 
the American governmental system — an ex- 

1 It is with great reluctance that these comments are made, 
since some persons may think that they come with ill grace 
from one whose grandfather was one of the thirteen and was 
supposed to have drafted one or hoth of their letters. But 
in spite of the prejudice naturally growing out of this fact, a 
thorough study of the whole subject has convinced me that 
Mr. Adams was unquestionably and completely right, and I 
have no escape from saying so. His adversaries had the ex- 
cuse of honesty in political error — an excuse which the great- 
est and wisest men must often fall back upon in times of hot 
party warfare. 



220 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

President. At this stage it would seem that the 
fruit ought to drop from the bough, no further 
process of development being reasonably prob- 
able for it. Yet Mr. Adams had by no means 
reached this measure of ripeness ; he still en- 
joyed abundant vigor of mind and body, and to 
lapse into dignified decrepitude was not agree- 
able, indeed was hardly possible for him. The 
prospect gave him profound anxiety ; he dreaded 
idleness, apathy, and decay with a keen terror 
which perhaps constituted a sufficient guaranty 
against them. Yet what could he do ? It would 
be absurd for him now to furbish up the rusty 
weapons of the law and enter again upon the 
tedious labor of collecting a clientage. His 
property was barely sufficient to enable him to 
live respectably, even according to the simple 
standard of the time, and could open to him no 
occupation in the way of gratifying unremuner- 
ative tastes. In March, 1828, he had been ad- 
vised to use five thousand dollars in a way to 
promote his reelection. He refused at once, 
upon principle ; but further set forth " candidly, 
the state of his affairs : " — 

" All my real estate in Quincy and Boston is mort- 
gaged for the payment of my debts ; the income of 
my whole private estate is less than $6,000 a year, 
and I am paying at least two thousand of that for in- 
terest on my debt. Finally, upon going out of office 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 221 

in one year from this time, destitute of all means of 
acquiring property, it will only be by the sacrifice of 
that which I now possess that I shall be able to sup- 
port my family." 

At first he plunged desperately into the Latin 
classics. He had a strong taste for such read- 
ing, and he made a firm resolve to compel this 
taste now to stand him in good stead in his hour 
of need. He courageously demanded solace 
from a pursuit which had yielded him pleasure 
enough in hours of relaxation, but which was 
altogether inadequate to fill the huge vacuum 
now suddenly created in his time and thoughts. 
There is much pathos in this spectacle of the 
old man setting himself with ever so feeble a 
weapon, yet with stern determination, to con- 
quer the cruelty of circumstances. But he 
knew, of course, that the Roman authors could 
only help him for a time, by way of distraction, 
in carrying him through a transition period. 
He soon set more cheerfully at work upon a 
memoir of his father, and had also plans for 
writing a history of the United States. Liter- 
ature had always possessed strong charms for 
him, and he had cultivated it after his usual 
studious and conscientious fashion. But his 
style was too often prolix, sententious, and tur- 
gid — faults which marked nearly all the writ- 
ing done in this country in those days. The 



222 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

world has probably not lost much by reason o£ 
the non-completion of the contemplated volumes. 
He could have made no other contribution to 
the history of the country at all approaching 
in value or interest to the Diary, of which a 
most important part was still to be written. 
For a brief time just now this loses its historic 
character, but makes up for the loss by depicting 
admirably some traits in the mental constitu- 
tion of the diarist. Tales of enchantment, he 
says, pleased his boyhood, but " the humors of 
Falstaff hardly affected me at all. Bardolph 
and Pistol and Nym were personages quite un- 
intelligible to me ; and the lesson of Sir Hugh 
Evans to the boy Williams was quite too serious 
an affair." In truth, no man can ever have 
been more utterly void of a sense of humor or 
an appreciation of wit than was Mr. Adams. 
Not a single instance of an approach to either is 
to be found throughout the twelve volumes of 
his Diary. Not even in the simple form of the 
" good story" could he find pleasure, and subtler 
delicacies were wasted on his well-regulated 
mind as dainty French dishes would be on the 
wholesome palate of a day-laborer. The books 
which bore the stamp of well-established ap- 
proval, the acknowledged classics of the Eng- 
lish, Latin, and French languages he read with 
a mingled sense of duty and of pleasure, and 



SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT 223 

evidently with cultivated appreciation, though 
whether he would have made an original dis- 
covery of their merits may be doubted. Oc- 
casionally he failed to admire even those vol- 
umes which deserved admiration, and then with 
characteristic honesty he admitted the fact. He 
tried Paradise Lost ten times before he could 
get through with it, and was nearly thirty years 
old when he first succeeded in reading it to the 
end. Thereafter he became very fond of it, 
but plainly by an acquired taste. He tried 
smoking and Milton, he says, at the same time, 
in the hope of discovering the " recondite 
charm " in them which so pleased his father. 
He was more easily successful with the tobacco 
than with the poetry. Many another has had 
the like experience, but the confession is not 
always so frankly forthcoming. 

Fate, however, had in store for Mr. Adams 
labors to which he was better suited than those 
of literature, and tasks to be performed which 
the nation could ill afford to exchange for an 
apotheosis of our second President, or even for 
a respectable but probably not very readable 
history. The most brilliant and glorious years 
of his career were yet to be lived. He was to 
earn in his old age a noble fame and distinction 
far transcending any achievement of his youth 
and middle age, and was to attain the liighesu 



224 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

pinnacle of his fame after lie had left the great- 
est office of the Government, and during a period 
for which presumably nothing better had been 
allotted than that he should tranquilly await the 
summons of death. It is a striking circumstance 
that the fullness of greatness for one who had 
been Senator, Minister to England, Secretary of 
State, and President, remained to be won in the 
comparatively humble position of a Representa- 
tive in Congress. 



CHAPTER III 

IN THE HOUSE OF KEPRESENTATIVES 

In September, 1830, Mr. Adams notes in his 
Diary a suggestion made to him that he might 
if he wished be elected to the national House 
of Representatives from the Plymouth district. 
The gentleman who threw out this tentative 
proposition remarked that in his opinion the 
acceptance of this position by an ex-President 
" instead of degrading the individual would 
elevate the representative character." Mr. Ad- 
ams replied, that he " had in that respect no 
scruple whatever. No person could be degraded 
by serving the people as a Representative in 
Congress. Nor in my opinion would an ex- 
President of the United States be degraded by 
serving as a selectman of his town, if elected 
thereto by the people." A few weeks later his 
election was accomplished by a flattering vote, 
the poll showing for him 1817 votes out of 2565, 
with only 373 for the next candidate. He con- 
tinued thenceforth to represent this district until 
his death, a period of about sixteen years. 
During this time he was occasionally suggested 



226 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

as a candidate for the governorship of the State, 
but was always reluctant to stand. The feeling 
between the Freemasons and the anti-Masons 
ran very high for several years, and once he was 
prevailed upon to allow his name to be used by 
the latter party. The result was that there was 
no election by the people ; and as he had been 
very loath to enter the contest in the beginning, 
he insisted upon withdrawing from before the 
legislature. We have now therefore only to pur- 
sue his career in the lower house of Congress. 

Unfortunately, but of obvious necessity, it is 
possible to touch only upon the more salient 
points of this which was really by far the most 
striking and distinguished portion of his life. 
To do more than this would involve an expla- 
nation of the politics of the country and the 
measures before Congress much more elaborate 
than would be possible in this volume. It will 
be necessary, therefore, to confine ourselves to 
drawing a picture of him in his character as the 
great combatant of Southern slavery. In the 
waging of this mighty conflict we shall see 
both his mind and his character developing in 
strength even in these years of his old age, and 
his traits standing forth in bolder relief than 
ever before. In his place on the floor of the 
House of Representatives he was destined to 
appear a more impressive figure than in any 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 227 

of the higher positions which he had previously 
filled. There he was to do his greatest work 
and to win a peculiar and distinctive glory 
which takes him out of the general throng even 
of famous statesmen, and entitles his name to be 
remembered with an especial reverence. Ade- 
quately to sketch his achievements, and so to 
do his memory the honor which it deserves, 
would require a pen as eloquent as has been 
wielded by any writer of our language. I can 
only attempt a brief and insufficient narrative. 

In his conscientious way he was faithful and 
industrious to a rare degree. He was never ab- 
sent and seldom late ; he bore unflinchingly the 
burden of severe committee work, and shirked 
no toil on the plea of age or infirmity. He at- 
tended closely to all the business of the House ; 
carefully formed his opinions on every question ; 
never failed to vote except for cause ; and always 
had a sufficient reason independent of party al- 
legiance to sustain his vote. Living in the age 
of oratory, he earned the name of " the old man 
eloquent." Yet he was not an orator in the 
sense in which Webster, Clay, and Calhoun 
were orators. He was not a rhetorician ; he had 
neither grace of manner nor a fine presence, 
neither an imposing delivery, nor even pleasing 
tones. On the contrary, he was exceptionally 



228 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

lacking in all these qualities. He was short, 
rotund, and bald ; about the time when he en- 
tered Congress, complaints become frequent in 
his Diary of weak and inflamed eyes, and soon 
these organs became so rheumy that the water 
would trickle down his cheeks ; a shaking of the 
hand grew upon him to such an extent that in 
time he had to use artificial assistance to steady 
it for writing ; his voice was high, shrill, liable 
to break, piercing enough to make itself heard, 
but not agreeable. This hardly seems the pic- 
ture of an orator ; nor was it to any charm of 
elocution that he owed his influence, but rather 
to the fact that men soon learned that what he 
said was always well worth hearing. When he 
entered Congress he had been for much more 
than a third of a century zealously gathering 
knowledge in public affairs, and during his 
career in that body every year swelled the 
already vast accumulation. Moreover, listeners 
were always sure to get a bold and an honest ut- 
terance and often pretty keen words from him, 
and he never spoke to an inattentive audience or 
to a thin house. Whether pleased or incensed 
by what he said, the Representatives at least 
always listened to it. He was by nature a hard 
fighter, and by the circumstances of his course in 
Congress this quality was stimulated to such a 
degree that parliamentary history does not show 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 229 

his equal as a gladiator. His power of invec- 
tive was extraordinary, and he was untiring and 
merciless in his use of it. Theoretically he 
disapproved of sarcasm, but practically he could 
not refrain from it. Men winced and cowered 
before his milder attacks, became sometimes 
dumb, sometimes furious with mad rage before 
his fiercer assaults. Such struggles evidently 
gave him pleasure, and there was scarce a back 
in Congress that did not at one time or another 
feel the score of his cutting lash ; though it was 
the Southerners and the Northern allies of 
Southerners whom chiefly he singled out for 
torture. He was irritable and quick to wrath ; 
he himself constantly speaks of the infirmity of 
his temper, and in his many conflicts his prin- 
cipal concern was to keep it in control. His 
enemies often referred to it and twitted him 
with it. Of alliances he was careless, and friend- 
ships he had almost none. But in the creation 
of enmities he was terribly successful. Not so 
much at first, but increasingly as years went on, 
a state of ceaseless, vigilant hostility became his 
normal condition. From the time when he fairly 
entered upon the long struggle against slavery, 
he enjoyed few peaceful days in the House. 
But he seemed to thrive upon the warfare, and 
to be never so well pleased as when he was 
bandying hot words with slave-holders and the 



230 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

Northern supporters of slave-holders. When 
the air of the House was thick with crimination 
and abuse he seemed to suck in fresh vigor and 
sjiirit from the hate-laden atmosphere. When 
invective fell around him in showers, he screamed 
back his retaliation with untiring rapidity and 
marvellous dexterity of aim. No odds could 
appall him. With his back set firm against a 
solid moral principle, it was his joy to strike 
out at a multitude of foes. They lost their 
heads as well as their tempers, but in the ex- 
tremest moments of excitement and anger Mr. 
Adams's brain seemed to work with machine- 
like coolness and accuracy. With flushed face, 
streaming eyes, animated gesticulation, and 
cracking voice, he always retained perfect mas- 
tery of all his intellectual faculties. He thus 
became a terrible antagonist, whom all feared, 
yet fearing could not refrain from attacking, so 
bitterly and incessantly did he choose to exert 
his wonderful power of exasperation. Few men 
could throw an opponent into wild blind fury 
with such speed and certainty as he could ; and 
he does not conceal the malicious gratification 
which such feats brought to him. A leader of 
such fighting capacity, so courageous, with such 
a magazine of experience and information, and 
with a character so irreproachable, could have 
won brilliant victories in public life at the head 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 231 

of even a small band of devoted followers. But 
Mr. Adams never had and apparently never 
wanted followers. Other prominent public men 
were brought not only into collision but into 
comparison with their contemporaries. But Mr. 
Adams's individuality was so strong that he can 
be compared with no one. It was not an indi- 
viduality of genius nor to any remarkable extent 
of mental qualities ; but rather an individuality 
of character. To this fact is probably to be 
attributed his peculiar solitariness. Men touch 
each other for j^urposes of attachment through 
their characters much more than through their 
minds. But few men, even in agreeing with Mr. 
Adams, felt themselves in sympathy with him. 
Occasionally conscience, or invincible logic, or 
even policy and self-interest, might compel one 
or another politician to stand beside him in 
debate or in voting ; but no current of fellow 
feeling ever passed between such temporary 
comrades and him. It was the cold connection 
of duty or of business. The first instinct of 
nearly every one was opposition towards him ; 
coalition might be forced by circumstances but 
never came by volition. For the purpose of 
winning immediate successes this was of course 
a most unfortunate condition of relationships. 
Yet it had some compensations : it left such 
influence as Mr. Adams could exert by stead- 



232 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

fastness and argument entirely unweakenecl by 
suspicion of hidden motives or personal ends. 
He had the weight and enjoyed the respect 
which a sincerity beyond distrust must always 
command in the long run. Of this we shall see 
some striking instances. 

One important limitation, however, belongs to 
this statement of solitariness. It was confined 
to his position in Congress. Outside of the city 
of Washington great numbers of the people, 
especially in New England, lent him a hearty 
suj^port and regarded him with friendship and 
admiration. These men had strong convictions 
and deep feelings, and their adherence counted 
for much. Moreover, their numbers steadily 
increased, and Mr. Adams saw that he was the 
leader in a cause which engaged the sound sense 
and the best feeling of the intelligent people of 
the country, and which was steadily gaining 
ground. Without such encouragement it is 
doubtful whether even his persistence would 
have held out through so long and extreme a 
trial. The sense of human fellowship was need- 
ful to him ; he could go without it in Congress, 
but he could not have gone without it altogether. 

Mr. Adams took his seat in the House as a 
member of the twenty-second Congress in De- 
cember, 1831. He had been elected by the Na- 
tional Republican, afterward better known as 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 233 

the Whig party, but one of his first acts was to 
declare that he would be bound by no partisan 
connection, but would in every matter act inde- 
pendently. This course he regarded as a " duty 
imposed upon him by his peculiar position," in 
that he " had spent the greatest portion of his 
life in the service of the whole nation and had 
been honored with their highest trust." Many 
persons had predicted that he would find him= 
self subjected to embarrassments and perhaps to 
humiliations by reason of his apparent descent 
in the scale of political dignities. He notes, 
however, that he encountered no annoyance on 
this score, but on the contrary he was rather 
treated with an especial respect. He was made 
chairman of the Committee on Manufactures, a 
laborious as well as an important and honor- 
able position at all times, and especially so at 
this juncture when the rebellious mutterings 
of South Carolina against the protective tariff 
were already to be heard rolling and swelling 
like portentous thunder from the fiery Southern 
regions. He would have preferred to exchange 
this post for a place upon the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs, for whose business he felt more 
fitted. But he was told that in the impending 
crisis his ability, authority, and prestige were 
all likely to be needed in the place allotted to 
him to aid in the salvation of the country. 



234 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS ' 

The nullification chapter of our history can- 
not here be entered upon at length, and Mr. 
Adams's connection with it must be very shortly 
stated. At the first meeting of his committee 
he remarks : " A reduction of the duties upon 
many of the articles in the tariff was under- 
stood by all to be the object to be effected ; " 
and a little later he said that he should be dis- 
posed to give such aid as he could to any plan 
for this reduction which the Treasury Depart- 
ment should devise. " He should certainly not 
consent to sacrifice the manufacturing interest," 
he said, " but something of concession would be 
due from that interest to appease the discon- 
tents of the South." He was in a reasonable 
frame of mind ; but unfortunately other people 
were rapidly ceasing to be reasonable. When 
Jackson's message of December 4, 1832, was 
promulgated, showing a disposition to do for 
South Carolina pretty much all that she de- 
manded, Mr. Adams was bitterly indignant. 
The message, he said, "recommends a total 
change in the policy of the Union with refer- 
ence to the Bank, manufactures, internal im- 
provement, and the public lands. It goes to 
dissolve the Union into its original elements, 
and is in substance a complete surrender to the 
nuUifiers of South Carolina." When, somewhat 
later on, the President lost his temper and flamed 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 235 

out in his famous proclamation to meet tlie nul- 
lification ordinance, he spoke in tones more 
pleasing to Mr. Adams. But the ultimate com- 
promise which disposed of the temporary dis- 
sension without permanently settling the funda- 
mental question of the constitutional right of 
nullification was extremely distasteful to him. 
He was utterly opposed to the concessions which 
were made while South Carolina still remained 
contumacious. He was for compelling her to 
retire altogether from her rebellious position 
and to repeal her unconstitutional enactments 
wholly and unconditionally, before one jot 
should be abated from the obnoxious duties. 
When the bill for the modification of the tariff 
was under debate, he moved to strike out all 
but the enacting clause, and supported his mo- 
tion in a long speech, insisting that no tariff 
ought to pass until it was known " whether 
there was any measure by which a State could 
defeat the laws of the Union." In a minority 
report from his own committee he strongly cen- 
sured the policy of the Administration. He was 
for meeting, fighting out, and determining at 
this crisis the whole doctrine of state riohts and 
secession. " One particle of compromise," he 
said, with what truth events have since shown 
clearly enough, would " directly lead to the 
final and irretrievable dissolution of the Union." 



236 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

In his usual strong and thorough-going fashion 
he was for persisting in the vigorous and spirited 
measures, the mere brief declaration of which, 
though so quickly receded from, won for Jack- 
son a measure of credit greater than he de- 
served. Jackson was thrown into a great rage 
by the threats of South Carolina, and replied 
to them with the same prompt wrath with 
which he had sometimes resented insults from 
individuals. But in his cool inner mind he was 
in sympathy with the demands which that State 
preferred, and though undoubtedly he would 
have fought her, had the dispute been forced to 
that pass, yet he was quite willing to make con- 
cessions, which were in fact in consonance with 
his own views as well as with hers, in order to 
avoid that sad conclusion. He was satisfied to 
have the instant emergency pass over in a man- 
ner rendered superficially creditable to himself 
by his outburst of temper, under cover of which 
he sacrificed the substantial matter of principle 
without a qualm. He shook his fist and shouted 
defiance in the face of the nuUifiers, while Mr. 
Clay smuggled a comfortable concession into 
their pockets. Jackson, notwithstanding his 
belligerent attitude, did all he could to help 
Clay and was well pleased with the result. Mr. 
Adams was not. He watched the disingenuous 
game with disgust. It is certain that if he had 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 237 

still been in the White House, the matter would 
have had a very different ending, bloodier, it 
may be, and more painful, but much more con- 
clusive. 

For the most part Mr. Adams found himself 
in opposition to President Jackson's Adminis- 
tration. This was not attributable to any sense 
of personal hostility towards a successful rival, 
but to an inevitable antipathy towards the 
measures, methods, and ways adopted by the 
General so unfortunately transferred to civil 
life. Few intelligent persons, and none having 
the statesman habit of mind, befriended the reck- 
less, violent, eminently unstatesmanlike Presi- 
dent. His ultimate weakness in the nullification 
matter, his opposition to internal improvements, 
his policy of sacrificing the public lands to indi- 
vidual speculators, his warfare against the Bank 
of the United States conducted by methods the 
most unjustifiable, the transaction of the removal 
of the deposits so disreputable and injurious in 
all its details, the importation of Mrs. Eaton's 
visiting-list into the politics and government of 
the country, the dismissal of the oldest and best 
public servants as a part of the nefarious sys- 
tem of using public offices as rewards for politi- 
cal aid and personal adherence, the formation 
from base ingredients of the ignoble " Kitchen 
Cabinet," — all these doings, together with much 



238 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

more of the like sort, constituted a career which 
could only seem blundering, undignified, and dis- 
honorable in the eyes of a man like Mr. Adams, 
who regarded statesmanship with the reverence 
due to the noblest of human callings. 

Kight as Mr. Adams was generally in his op- 
position to Jackson, yet once he deserves credit 
for the contrary course. This was in the matter 
of our relations with France. The treaty of 
1831 secured to this country an indemnity of 
^5,000,000, which, however, it had never been 
possible to collect. This procrastination raised 
Jackson's ever ready ire, and casting to the 
winds any further dunning, he resolved either 
to have the money or to fight for it. He sent 
a message to Congress, recommending that if 
France should not promptly settle the account, 
letters of marque and reprisal against her com- 
merce should be issued. He ordered Edward 
Livingston, minister at Paris, to demand his 
passports and cross over to London. These 
eminently proper and ultimately effectual mea- 
sures alarmed the large party of the timid ; and 
the General found himself in danger of exten- 
sive desertions even on the part of his usual 
supporters. But as once before in a season of 
his dire extremity his courage and vigor had 
brought the potent aid of Mr. Adams to his 
side, so now again he came under a heavy debt 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 239 

of gratitude to the same champion. Mr. Adams 
stood by him with generous gallantry, and by a 
telling speech in the House probably saved him 
from serious humiliation and even disaster. The 
President's style of dealing had roused Mr. 
Adams's spirit, and he spoke with a fire and 
vehemence which accomplished the unusual feat 
of changing the predisposed minds of men too 
familiar with speech-making to be often much 
influenced by it in the practical matter of vot- 
ing. He thought at the time that the success of 
this speech, brilliant as it appeared, was not un- 
likely to result in his political ruin. Jackson 
would befriend and reward his thorough-going 
partisans at any cost to his own conscience or 
the public welfare ; but the exceptional aid, ten- 
dered not from a sense of personal fealty to him- 
self, but simply from the motive of aiding the 
right cause happening in the especial instance 
to have been espoused by him, never won from 
him any token of regard. In November, 1837, 
Mr. Adams, speaking of his personal relations 
with the President, said : — 

" Though I had served him more than any other 
living man ever did, and though I supported his Ad- 
ministration at the hazard of my own political de- 
struction, and effected for him at a moment when his 
own friends were deserting him what no other mem- 
ber of Congress ever accomplished for him — an 



240 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

unanimous vote of the House of Representatives to 
support him in his quarrel with France ; though I 
supported him in other very critical periods of his 
Administration, my return from him was insult, in- 
dignity, and slander." 

Antipathy had at last become the definitive 
condition of these two men — antipathy both 
political and personal. At one time a singular 
effort to reconcile them — probably though not 
certainly undertaken with the knowledge of 
Jackson — was made by Richard M. Johnson. 
This occurred shortly before the inauguration 
of the war conducted by the President against 
the Bank of the United States ; and judging by 
the rest of Jackson's behavior at this period, 
there was probably at least as much of calcula- 
tion in his motives, if in fact he was cognizant 
of Johnson's approaches, as there was of any 
real desire to reestablish the bygone relation of 
honorable friendship. To the advances thus 
made Mr. Adams replied a little coldly, not 
quite repellently, that Jackson, having been re- 
sponsible for the suspension of personal inter- 
course, must now be undisguisedly the active 
party in renewing it. At the same time he pro- 
fessed himself "willing to receive in a spirit of 
conciliation any advance which in that spirit 
General Jackson might make." But nothing 
came of this intrinsically hopeless attempt. On 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 241 

the contrary the two drew rapidly and more 
widely apart, and entertained concerning each 
other opinions which grew steadily more un- 
favorable, and upon Adams's part more con- 
temptuous, as time went on. 

Fifteen months later General Jackson made 
his visit to Boston, and it was proposed that 
Harvard College should confer upon him the 
degree of Doctor of Laws. The absurdity of 
the act, considered simply in itself, was admit- 
ted by all. But the argument in its favor was 
based upon the established usage of the College 
as towards all other Presidents, so that its omis- 
sion in this case might seem a personal slight. 
Mr. Adams, being at the time a member of the 
Board of Overseers, strongly opposed the pro- 
position, but of course in vain. All that he could 
do was, for his own individual part, to refuse to 
be present at the conferring of the degree, giv- 
ing as the minor reason for his absence, that he 
could hold no friendly intercourse with the Pre- 
sident, but for the major reason that " independ- 
ent of that, as myself an affectionate child of 
our Alma Mater, I would not be present to wit- 
ness her disgrace in conferring her highest lit- 
erary honors upon a barbarian who could not 
write a sentence of grammar and hardly could 
spell his own name." " A Doctorate of Laws," 
he said, " for which an apology was necessary, 



242 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

was a cheap honor and ... a sycophantic com- 
pliment." After the deed was done, he used to 
amuse himself by speaking of " Doctor Andrew 
Jackson." This same eastern tour of Jackson's 
called forth many other expressions of bitter 
sarcasm from Adams. The President was ill 
and unable to carry out the programme of en- 
tertainment and exhibition prepared for him : 
whereupon Mr. Adams remarks : — 

" I believe much of his debility is politic. . . . He 
is one of our tribe of great men who turn disease to 
commodity, like John Randolph, who for forty years 
was always dying. Jackson, ever since he became a 
mark of public attention, has been doing the same 
thing. . . . He is now alternately giving out his 
chronic diarrhoea and making Warren bleed him for a 
pleurisy, and posting to Cambridge for a doctorate of 
laws ; mounting the monument of Bunker's Hill to 
hear a fulsome address and receive two cannon balls 
from Edward Everett," etc. " Four fifths of his sick- 
ness is trickery, and the other fifth mere fatigue." 

This sounds, it must be confessed, a trifle 
rancorous ; but Adams had great excuse for 
nourishing rancor towards Jackson. 

It is time, however, to return to the House 
of Representatives. It was not by bearing his 
share in the ordinary work of that body, im- 
portant or exciting as that might at one time or 
another happen to be, that Mr. Adams was to 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 243 

win in Congress that reputation whicli has been 
already described as far overshadowing all his 
previous career. A special task and a peculiar 
mission were before him. It was a part of his 
destiny to become the champion of the anti- 
slavery cause in the national legislature. Al- 
most the first thing which he did after he had 
taken his seat in Congress was to present "fif- 
teen petitions signed numerously by citizens 
of Pennsylvania, praying for the abolition of 
slavery and the slave-trade in the District of 
Columbia." He simply moved their reference 
to the Committee on the District of Columbia, 
declaring that he should not support that part 
of the petition which prayed for abolition in 
the District. The time had not yet come when 
the South felt much anxiety at such manifesta- 
tions, and these first stones were dropped into 
the pool without stirring a ripple on the surface. 
For about four years more we hear little in the 
Diary concerning slavery. It was not until 
1835, when the annexation of Texas began to be 
mooted, that the North fairly took the alarm, 
and the irrepressible conflict began to develop. 
Then at once we find Mr. Adams at the front. 
That he had always cherished an abhorrence of 
slavery and a bitter antipathy to slave-holders 
as a class is sufficiently indicated by many 
chance remarks scattered through his Diary 



244 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

from early years. Now that a great question, 
vitally affecting the slave power, divided the 
country into parties and inaugurated the strug- 
gle which never again slept until it was settled 
forever by the result of the civil war, Mr. Ad- 
ams at once assumed the function of leader. 
His position should be clearly understood ; for 
in the vast labor which lay before the abolition 
party different tasks fell to different men. Mr. 
Adams assumed to be neither an agitator nor a 
reformer ; by necessity of character, training, 
fitness, and official position, he was a legislator 
and statesman. The task which accident or 
destiny allotted to him was neither to preach 
among the people a crusade against slavery, nor 
to devise and keep in action the thousand re- 
sources which busy men throughout the country 
were constantly multiplying for the purpose of 
spreading and increasing a popular hostility 
towards the great " institution." Every great 
cause has need of its fanatics, its vanguard to 
keep far in advance of what is for the time 
reasonable and possible ; it has not less need 
of the wiser and cooler heads to discipline and 
control the great mass which is set in motion 
by the reckless forerunners, to see to the ac- 
complishment of that which the present circum- 
stances and development of the movement allow 
to be accomplished. It fell to Mr. Adams to 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 245 

direct the assault against the outworks which 
were then vuhierable, and to see that the force 
then possessed by the movement was put to 
such uses as would insure definite results instead 
of being wasted in endeavors which as yet were 
impossible of achievement. Drawing his duty 
from his situation and surroundings, he left to 
others, to younger men and more rhetorical 
natures, outside the walls of Congress, the 
business of firing the people and stirring popular 
opinion and sympathy. He was set to do that 
portion of the work of abolition which was to be 
done in Congress, to encounter the mighty 
efforts which were made to stifle the great 
humanitarian cry in the halls of the national 
legislature. This was quite as much as one 
man was equal to ; in fact, it is certain that 
no one then in public life except Mr. Adams 
could have done it effectually. So obvious is 
this that one cannot help wondering what would 
have befallen the cause, had he not been just 
where he was to forward it in just the way that 
he did. It is only another among the many 
instances of the need surely finding the man. 
His qualifications were unique ; his ability, his 
knowledge, his prestige and authority, his high 
personal character, his persistence and courage, 
his combativeness stimulated by an acrimonious 
temper but checked by a sound judgment, his 



246 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

merciless power of invective, liis independence 
and carelessness of applause or vilification, 
friendship or enmity, constituted him an oppo- 
nent fully equal to the enormous odds which 
the slave-holding interest arrayed against him. 
A like moral and mental fitness was to be found 
in no one else. Numbers could not overawe 
him, nor loneliness dispirit him. He was 
probably the most formidable fighter in debate 
of whom parliamentary records preserve the 
memory. The hostility which he encountered 
beggars description ; the English language was 
deficient in adequate words of virulence and 
contempt to express the feelings which were 
entertained towards him. At home he had not 
the countenance of that class in society to which 
he naturally belonged. A second time he found 
the chief part of the gentlemen of Boston and its 
vicinity, the leading lawyers, the rich merchants, 
the successful manufacturers, not only opposed 
to him, but entertaining towards him sentiments 
of personal dislike and even vindictiveness. 
This stratum of the community, having a natural 
distaste for disquieting agitation and influenced 
by class feeling, — the gentlemen of the North 
sympathizing with the " aristocracy " of the 
South, — could not make common cause with 
anti-slavery people. Fortunately, however, Mr. 
Adams was returned by a country district where 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 247 

the old Puritan instincts were still strong. The 
intelligence and free spirit of New England were 
at his back, and were fairly represented by him ; 
in spite of high-bred disfavor they carried him 
gallantly through the long struggle. The people 
of the Plymouth district sent him back to the 
House every two years from the time of his first 
election to the year of his death, and the disgust 
of the gentlemen of Boston was after all of 
trifling consequence to him and of no serious 
influence upon the course of history. The old 
New England instinct was in him as it was in 
the mass of the people ; that instinct made him 
the real exponent of New England thought, 
belief, and feeling, and that same instinct made 
the great body of voters stand by him with 
unswerving constancy. When his fellow Repre- 
sentatives, almost to a man, deserted him, he was 
sustained by many a token of sympathy and admi- 
ration coming from among the people at large. 
Time and the history of the United States have 
been his potent vindicators. The conservative, 
conscienceless respectability of wealth was, as 
is usually the case with it in the annals of the 
Anglo-Saxon race, quite in the wrong and pre- 
destined to well-merited defeat. It adds to the 
honor due to Mr. Adams that his sense of risfht 
was true enough, and that his vision was clear 
enough, to lead him out of that strong thraldom 



248 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

which class feelings, traditions, and comradeship 
are wont to exercise. 

But it is time to resume the narrative and to 
let Mr. Adams's acts — of which after all it is 
possible to give only the briefest sketch, select- 
ing a few of the more striking incidents — tell 
the tale of his Congressional life. 

On February 14, 1835, Mr. Adams again pre- 
sented two petitions for the abolition of slavery 
in the District of Columbia, but without giving 
rise to much excitement. The fusillade was, 
however, getting too thick and fast to be en- 
dured longer with indifference by the impatient 
Southerners. At the next session of Congress 
they concluded to try to stop it, and their in- 
genious scheme was to make Congress shot- 
proof, so to speak, against such missiles. On 
January 4, 1836, Mr. Adams presented an abo- 
lition petition couched in the usual form, and 
moved that it be laid on the table, as others like 
it had lately been. But in a moment Mr. Glas- 
cock, of Georgia, moved that the petition be 
not received. Debate sprang up on a point of 
order, and two days later, before the question 
of reception was determined, a resolution was 
offered by Mr. Jarvis, of Maine, declaring that 
the House would not entertain any petitions for 
the abolition of slavery in the District of Co- 
lumbia. This resolution was supported on the 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 249 

ground that Congress had no constitutional 
power in the premises. Some days later, Jan- 
uary 18, 1836, before any final action had been 
reached upon this proposition, Mr. Adams pre- 
sented some more abolition petitions, one of 
them signed by " one hundred and forty-eight 
ladies, citizens of the Commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts ; for, I said, I had not yet brought my- 
self to doubt whether females were citizens." 
The usual motion not to receive was made, and 
then a new device was resorted to in the shape 
of a motion that the motion not to receive be 
laid on the table. 

On February 8, 1836, this novel scheme for 
shutting off petitions against slavery immedi- 
ately upon their presentation was referred to 
a select committee of which Mr. Pinckney was 
chairman. On May 18 this committee reported 
in substance : 1. That Congress had no power 
to interfere with slavery in any State ; 2. That 
Congress ought not to interfere with slavery in 
the District of Columbia ; 3. That whereas 
the agitation of the subject was disquieting and 
objectionable, " all petitions, memorials, resolu- 
tions or papers, relating in any way or to any 
extent whatsoever to the subject of slavery or 
the abolition of slavery, shall, without being 
either printed or referred, be laid upon the 
table, and that no further action whatever shall 



250 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

be had thereon." When it came to taking a 
vote upon this report a division of the question 
was called for, and the yeas and nays were 
ordered. The first resolution was then read, 
whereupon Mr. Adams at once rose and pledged 
himself, if the House would allow him five min- 
utes' time, to prove it to be false. But cries of 
" order " resounded ; he was compelled to take 
his seat and the resolution was adoj)ted by 182 
to 9. Upon the second resolution he asked to 
be excused from voting, and his name was 
passed in the call. The third resolution with 
its preamble was then read, and Mr. Adams, so 
soon as his name was called, rose and said : " I 
hold the resolution to be a direct violation of 
the Constitution of the United States, the rules 
of this House, and the rights of my constit- 
uents." He was interrupted by shrieks of 
" order " resounding on every side ; but he only 
spoke the louder and obstinately finished his 
sentence before resuming his seat. The resolu- 
tion was of course agreed to, the vote standing 
117 to 68. Such was the beginning of the fa- 
mous " gag " which became and long remained 
— afterward in a worse shape — a standing 
rule of the House. Regularly in each new Con- 
gress when the adoption of rules came up, Mr. 
Adams moved to rescind the " gag ; " but for 
many years his motions continued to be voted 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 251 

down, as a matter of course. Its imposition was 
clearly a mistake on the part of the slave-hold- 
ing party ; free debate would almost surely have 
hurt them less than this interference with the 
freedom of petition. They had assumed an un- 
tenable position. Henceforth, as the persistent 
advocate of the right of petition, Mr. Adams 
had a su23port among the people at large vastly 
greater than he could have enjoyed as the 
opponent of slavery. As his adversaries had 
shaped the issue he was predestined to victory 
in a free country. 

A similar scene was enacted on December 21 
and 22, 1837. A "gag" or "speech-smother- 
ing" resolution being then again before the 
House, Mr. Adams, when his name was called 
in the taking of the vote, cried out " amidst a 
perfect war-whoop of * order : ' ' I hold the reso- 
lution to be a violation of the Constitution, of the 
right of petition of my constituents and of the 
people of the United States, and of my right to 
freedom of speech as a member of this House.' " 
Afterward, in reading over the names of mem- 
bers who had voted, the clerk omitted that of 
Mr. Adams, this utterance of his not having 
constituted a vote. Mr. Adams called attention 
to the omission. The clerk, by direction of the 
Speaker, thereupon called his name. His only 
reply was by a motion that his answer as al- 



252 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

ready made should be entered on the Journal. 
The Speaker said that this motion was not in 
order. Mr. Adams, resolute to get upon the 
record, requested that his motion with the 
Speaker's decision that it was not in order 
might be entered on the Journal. The next 
day, finding that this entry had not been made 
in proper shape, he brought up the matter 
again. One of his opponents made a false step, 
and Mr. Adams " bantered him " upon it until 
the other was provoked into saying that, " if 
the question ever came to the issue of war, the 
Southern people would march into New England 
and conquer it." Mr. Adams replied that no 
doubt they would if they could ; that he entered 
his resolution upon the Journal because he was 
resolved that his opponent's "name should go 
down to posterity damned to everlasting fame." 
No one ever gained much in a war of words with 
this ever-ready and merciless tongue. 

Mr. Adams, having soon become known to all 
the nation as the indomitable presenter of anti- 
slavery petitions, quickly found that great num- 
bers of people were ready to keep him busy in 
this trying task. For a long while it was al- 
most as much as he could accomplish to receive, 
sort, schedule, and present the infinite number 
of petitions and memorials which came to him 
praying for the abolition of slavery and of the 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 253 

slave-trade in the District of Columbia, and op- 
posing the annexation of Texas. It was an oc- 
cupation not altogether devoid even of physical 
danger, and calling for an amount of moral 
courage greater than it is now easy to appre- 
ciate. It is the incipient stage of such a con- 
flict that tests the mettle of the little band of 
innovators. When it grows into a great party 
question much less courage is demanded. The 
mere presentation of an odious petition may 
seem in itself to be a simple task ; but to find 
himself in a constant state of antagonism to a 
powerful, active, and vindictive majority in a 
debating body, constituted of such material as 
then made up the House of Representatives, 
wore hardly even upon the iron temper and in- 
flexible disposition of Mr. Adams. " The most 
insignificant error of conduct in me at this 
time," he writes in April, 1837, " would be my 
irredeemable ruin in this world ; and both the 
ruling political parties are watching with in- 
tense anxiety for some overt act by me to set 
the whole pack of their hireling presses upon 
me." But amid the host of foes, and aware 
that he could count upon the aid of scarcely a 
single hearty and daring friend, he labored only 
the more earnestly. The severe pressure against 
him begat only the more severe counter pressure 
upon his part. 



254 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

Besides these natural and legitimate difficul- 
ties, Mr. Adams was further in the embarrass- 
ing position of one who has to fear as much 
from the imprudence of allies as from open hos- 
tility of antagonists, and he was often compelled 
to guard against a peculiar risk coming from 
his very coadjutors in the great cause. The ex- 
tremists who had cast aside all regard for what 
was practicable, and who utterly scorned to con- 
sider the feasibility or the consequences of mea- 
sures which seemed to them to be correct as ab- 
stract propositions of morality, were constantly 
urging him to action which would only have 
destroyed him forever in political life, would 
have stripped him of his influence, exiled him 
from that position in Congress where he could 
render the most efficient service that was in 
him, and left him naked of all usefulness and 
utterly helpless to continue that essential por- 
tion of the labor which could be conducted by 
no one else. " The abolitionists generally," he 
said, " are constantly urging me to indiscreet 
movements, which would ruin me, and weaken 
and not strengthen their cause." His family, 
on the other hand, sought to restrain him from 
all connection with these dangerous partisans. 
" Between these adverse impulses," he writes, 
" my mind is agitated almost to distraction. . . . 
I walk on the edge of a precipice almost every 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 255 

step that I take." In the midst of all this anx- 
iety, however, he was fortunately supported by 
the strong commendation of his constituents 
which they once loyally declared by formal and 
unanimous votes in a convention summoned for 
the express purpose of manifesting their sup- 
port. His feelings appear by an entry in his 
Diary in October, 1837 : — 

"I have gone [he said] as far ujDon this article, 
the abolition of slavery, as the public opinion of the 
free portion of the Union will bear, and so far that 
scarcely a slave-holding member of the House dares 
to vote with me upon any question. I have as yet 
been thoroughly sustained by my own State, but one 
step further and I hazard my own standing and in- 
fluence there, my own final overthrow, and the cause 
of liberty itself for an indefinite time, certainly for 
more than my remnant of life. Were there in the 
House one member capable of taking the lead in this 
cause of universal emancipation, which is moving 
onward in the world and in this country, I would 
withdraw from the contest which will rage with in- 
creasing fury as it draws to its crisis, but for the 
management of which my age, infirmities, and ap- 
proaching end totally disqualify me. There is no 
such man in the House." 

September 15, 1837, he says : " I have been 
for some time occupied day and night, when at 
home, in assorting and recording the petitions 



256 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

and remonstrances against the annexation of 
Texas, and other anti-slavery petitions, which 
flow upon me in torrents." The next day he 
presented the singular petition of one Sherlock 
S. Gregory, who had conceived the eccentric 
notion of asking Congress to declare him " an 
alien or stranger in the land so long as slavery 
exists and the wrongs of the Indians are unre- 
quited and unrepented of." September 28 he 
presented a batch of his usual petitions, and 
also asked leave to offer a resolution calling for 
a report concerning the coasting trade in slaves. 
" There was what Napoleon would have called 
a superb NO I returned to my request from the 
servile side of the House." The next day he 
presented fifty-one more like documents, and 
notes having previously presented one hundred 
and fifty more. 

In December, 1837, still at this same work, 
he made a hard but fruitless effort to have the 
Texan remonstrances and petitions sent to a 
select committee instead of to that on foreign 
affairs which was constituted in the Southern 
interest. On December 29 he " presented sev- 
eral bundles of abolition and anti-slavery peti- 
tions," and said that, having declared his opin- 
ion that the gag-rule was unconstitutional, null, 
and void, he should " submit to it only as to 
physical force." January 3, 1838, he presented 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 257 

" about a hundred petitions, memorials, and re- 
monstrances, — all laid on the table." January 
15 he presented fifty more. January 28 he re- 
ceived thirty-one petitions, and spent that day 
and the next in assorting and filing these and 
others which he previously had, amounting in 
all to one hundred and twenty. February 14, 
in the same year, was a field-day in the petition 
campaign : he presented then no less than three 
hundred and fifty petitions, all but three or four 
of which bore more or less directly upon the 
slavery question. Among these petitions was 
one 

"praying that Congress would take measures to 
protect citizens from the North going to the South 
from danger to their lives. When the motion to lay 
that on the table was made, I said that, ' In another 
part of the Capitol it had been threatened that if a 
Northern abolitionist should go to North Carolina, 
and utter a principle of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence ' — Here a loud cry of ' order ! order ! ' burst 
forth, in which the Speaker yelled the loudest. I 
waited till it subsided, and then resumed, ' that if they 
could catch him they would hang him ! ' I said this 
so as to be distinctly heard throughout the hall, the 
renewed deafening shout of ' order ! order ! ' notwith- 
standing. The Speaker then said, 'The gentleman 
from Massachusetts will take his seat ; ' which I did 
and immediately rose again and presented another 
petition. He did not dare tell me that I could not 



258 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

proceed without permission of the House, and I pro- 
ceeded. The threat to hang Northern abolitionists 
was uttered by Preston of the Senate within the last 
fortnight." 

On March 12, of the same year, he presented 
ninety-six petitions, nearly all of an anti-sla- 
very character, one of them for " expunging the 
Declaration of Independence from the Jour- 
nals." 

On December 14, 1838, Mr. Wise, of Vir- 
ginia, objected to tlie reception of certain anti- 
slavery petitions. The Speaker ruled his ob- 
jection out of order, and from this ruling Wise 
appealed. The question on the appeal was 
taken by yeas and nays. When Mr. Adams's 
name was called, he relates : — 

" I rose and said, ' Mr. Speaker, considering all the 
resolutions introduced by the gentleman from New 
Hampshire as ' — The Speaker roared out, * The 
gentleman from Massachusetts must answer Aye or 
No, and nothing else. Order ! ' With a reinforced 
voice — ' I refuse to answer, because I consider all 
the proceedings of the House as unconstitutional ' — 
While in a firm and swelling voice I pronounced dis- 
tinctly these words, the Speaker and about two thirds 
of the House cried, ' order ! order ! order ! ' till it be- 
came a perfect yell. I paused a moment for it to 
cease and then said, ' a direct violation of the Consti- 
tution of the United States.' While speaking these 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 259 

words with loud, distinct, and slow articulation, the 
bawl of ' order ! order ! ' resounded again from two 
thirds of the House. The Speaker, with agonizing 
lungs, screamed, ' I call upon the House to support 
me in the execution of my duty ! ' I then coolly re- 
sumed my seat. Waddy Thompson, of South Caro- 
lina, advancing into one of the aisles with a sarcastic 
smile and silvery tone of voice, said, ' What aid from 
the House would the Speaker desire ? ' The Speaker 
snarled back, ' The gentleman from South Carolina 
is out of order ! ' and a peal of laughter burst forth 
from all sides of the House." 

So that little skirmish ended, much more 
cheerfully than was often the case. 

December 20, 1838, he presented fifty anti- 
slavery petitions, among which were three pray- 
ing for the recognition of the Republic of Hayti. 
Petitions of this latter kind he strenuously in- 
sisted should be referred to a select committee, 
or else to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 
accompanied in the latter case with explicit 
instructions that a report thereon should be 
brought in. He audaciously stated that he asked 
for these instructions because so many petitions 
of a like tenor had been sent to the Foreign 
Affairs Committee, and had found it a limbo 
from which they never again emerged, and the 
chairman had said that this would continue to 
be the case. The chairman, sitting two rows 



260 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

behind Mr. Adams, said, " that insinuation 
should not be made against a gentleman ! " 
" I shall make," retorted Mr. Adams, " what in- 
sinuation I please. This is not an insinuation, 
but a direct, positive assertion." 

January 7, 1839, he cheerfully records that 
he presented ninety-five petitions, bearing " di- 
rectly or indirectly upon the slavery topics," 
and some of them very exasperating in their 
language. March 30, 1840, he handed in no 
less than five hundred and eleven petitions, 
many of which were not receivable under the 
" gag " rule adopted on January 28 of that 
year, which had actually gone the length of re- 
fusing so much as a reception to abolition peti- 
tions. April 13, 1840, he presented a petition 
for the repeal of the laws in the District of 
Columbia, which authorized the whipping of 
women. Besides this he had a multitude of 
others, and he only got through the presentation 
of them "just as the morning hour expired." 
On January 21, 1841, he found much amuse- 
ment in puzzling his Southern adversaries by 
presenting some petitions in which, besides the 
usual anti-slavery prayers, there was a prayer 
to refuse to admit to the Union any new State 
whose constitution should tolerate slavery. The 
Speaker said that only the latter prayer could 
be received under the " gag " rule. Connor, of 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPEESENTATIVES 261 

North Carolina, moved to lay on the table so 
much of the petition as could be received. Mr. 
Adams tauntingly suggested that in order to do 
this it would be necessary to mutilate the doc- 
ument by cutting it into two pieces ; whereat 
there was great wrath and confusion, " the 
House got into a snarl, the Speaker knew not 
what to do." The Southerners raved and fumed 
for a while, and finally resorted to their usual 
expedient, and dropped altogether a matter 
which so sorely burned their fingers. 

A fact, very striking in view of the subse- 
quent course of events, concerning Mr. Adams's 
relation with the slavery question, seems hith- 
erto to have escaped the attention of those who 
have dealt with his career. It may as well find 
a place here as elsewhere in a narrative which it 
is difficult to make strictly chronological. Ap- 
parently he was the first to declare the doc- 
trine, that the abolition of slavery could be law- 
fully accomplished by the exercise of the war 
powers of the Government. The earliest ex- 
pression of this principle is found in a speech 
made by him in May, 1836, concerning the 
distribution of rations to fugitives from Indian 
hostilities in Alabama and Georgia. He then 
said : — 

" From the instant that your slave-holding States 
become the theatre of war, civil, servile, or foreign, 



262 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

from that instant the war powers of the Constitution 
extend to interference with the institution of slavery 
in every way in which it can be interfered with, from 
a claim of indemnity for slaves taken or destroyed, 
to a cession of the State burdened with slavery to a 
foreign power." 

In June, 1841, he made a speech of which no 
report exists, but the contents of which may be 
in part learned from the replies and references 
to it which are on record. Therein he appears 
to have declared that slavery could be abolished 
in the exercise of the treaty-making power, hav- 
ing reference doubtless to a treaty concluding a 
war. 

These views were of course mere abstract ex- 
pressions of opinion as to the constitutionality 
of measures the real occurrence of which was 
anticipated by nobody. But, as the first sug- 
gestions of a doctrine in itself most obnoxious 
to the Southern theory and fundamentally de- 
structive of the great Southern " institution " 
under perfectly possible circumstances, this enun- 
ciation by Mr. Adams gave rise to much indig- 
nation. Instead of allowing the imperfectly 
formulated principle to lose its danger in obliv- 
ion, the Southerners assailed it with vehemence. 
They taunted Mr. Adams with the opinion, as if 
merely to say that he held it was to damn him 
to everlasting infamy. The only result was that 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 263 

they induced him to consider the matter more 
fully, and to express his belief more deliber- 
ately. In January, 1842, Mr. Wise attacked 
him upon this ground, and a month later Mar- 
shall followed in the same strain. These as- 
saults were perhaps the direct incentive to what 
was said soon after by Mr. Adams, on April 
14, 1842, in a speech concerning war with Eng- 
land and with Mexico, of which there was then 
some talk. Giddings, among other resolutions, 
had introduced one to the effect that the slave 
States had the exclusive right to be consulted 
on the subject of slavery. Mr. Adams said that 
he could not give his assent to this. One of the 
laws of war, he said, is 

" that when a country is invaded, and two hostile 
armies are set in martial array, the commanders of 
both armies have power to emancipate all the slaves 
in the invaded territory." 

He cited some precedents from South Ameri- 
can history, and continued : — 

" Whether the war be servile, civil, or foreign, I lay 
this down as the law of nations. I say that the mil- 
itary authority takes for the time the place of all mu- 
nicipal institutions, slavery among the rest. Under 
that state of things, so far from its being true that the 
States where slavery exists have the exclusive man- 
agement of the subject, not only the President of the 
United States but the commander of the army has 



264 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

power to order the universal emancipation of the 
slaves." 

This declaration of constitutional doctrine 
was made with much positiveness and emphasis. 
There for many years the matter rested. The 
principle had been clearly asserted by Mr. Ad- 
ams, angrily repudiated by the South, and in 
the absence of the occasion of war there was 
nothing more to be done in the matter. But 
when the exigency at last came, and the govern- 
ment of the United States was brought face 
to face with by far the gravest constitutional 
problem presented by the great rebellion, then 
no other solution presented itself save that which 
had been suggested twenty years earlier in the 
days of peace by Mr. Adams. It was in pur- 
suance of the doctrine to which he thus gave 
the first utterance that slavery was forever abol- 
ished in the United States. Extracts from the 
last-quoted speech long stood as the motto of 
the " Liberator ; " and at the time of the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation Mr. Adams was regarded 
as the chief and sufficient authority for an act 
so momentous in its effect, so infinitely useful 
in a matter of national extremity. But it was 
evidently a theory which had taken strong hold 
upon him. Besides the foregoing speeches there 
is an explicit statement of it in a letter which 
he wrote from Washington April 4, 1836, to 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 265 

Hon. Solomon Lincoln, of HIngham, a friend 
and constituent. After touching upon other 
topics he says : — 

" The new pretensions of the slave representation 
in Congress of a right to refuse to receive petitions, 
and that Congress have no constitutional power to 
abolish slavery or the slave-trade in the District of 
Columbia, forced upon me so much of the discussion 
as I did take upon me, but in which you are well 
aware I did not and could not speak a tenth part of 
my mind. I did not, for example, start the question 
whether by the law of God and of nature man can 
hold property, hereditary property, in man. I did 
not start the question whether in the event of a ser- 
vile insurrection and war, Congress would not have 
complete unlimited control over the whole subject of 
slavery, even to the emancipation of all the slaves in 
the State where such insurrection should break out, 
and for the suppression of .which the freemen of 
Plymouth and Norfolk counties, Massachusetts, should 
be called by Acts of Congress to pour out their trea- 
sures and to shed their blood. Had I spoken my 
mind on these two points, the sturdiest of the aboli- 
tionists would have disavowed the sentiments of their 
champion." 

The projected annexation of Texas, which 
became a battle-ground whereon the tide of 
conflict swayed so long and so fiercely to and 
fro, profoundly stirred Mr. Adams's indigna- 
tion. It is, he said, " a question of far deeper 



266 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

root and more overshadowing branches than 
any or all others that now agitate this country. 
... I had opened it by my speech ... on 
the 25th May, 1836 — by far the most noted 
speech that I ever made." He based his oppo- 
sition to the annexation upon constitutional 
objections, and on September 18, 1837, offered 
a resolution that " the power of annexing the 
people of any independent State to this Union 
is a power not delegated by the Constitution of 
the United States to their Congress or to any 
department of their government, but reserved 
to the people." The Speaker refused to re- 
ceive the motion, or even allow it to be read, 
on the ground that it was not in order. Mr. 
Adams repeated substantially the same motion 
in June, 1838, then adding " that any attempt 
by act of Congress or by treaty to annex the 
Republic of Texas to this Union would be an 
usurpation of power which it would be the right 
and the duty of the free people of the Union to 
resist and annul." The story of his opposition 
to this measure is, however, so interwoven with 
his general antagonism to slavery, that there is 
little occasion for treating them separately.-^ 

^ In an address to his constituents in September, 1842, Mr. 
Adams spoke of his course concerning Texas. Having men- 
tioned Mr. Van Buren's reply, declining the formal proposition 
made in 1837 by the Republic of Texas for annexation to the 
United States, he continued : ' ' But the slave-breeding passion 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPKESENTATIVES 267 

People sometimes took advantage of his 
avowed principles concerning freedom of peti- 
tion to put him in positions which they thought 
would embarrass him or render him ridiculous. 
Not much success, however, attended these fool- 
ish efforts of shallow wits. It was not easy to 
disconcert him or to take him at disadvantage. 
July 28, 1841, he presented a paper of this 
character coming from sundry Virginians and 
praying that all the free colored population 
should be sold or expelled from the country. 
He simply stated as he handed in the sheet that 

for the annexation was not to be so disconcerted. At the en- 
suing session of Congress numerous petitions and memorials 
for and against the annexation were presented to the House, 
. . . and were referred to the Committee of Foreign Affairs, 
who, without ever taking them into consideration, towards the 
close of the session asked to be discharged from the consider- 
ation of them all. It was on this report that the debate arose, 
in which I disclosed the whole system of duplicity and perfidy 
towards Mexico, which had marked the Jackson Administra- 
tion from its commencement to its close. It silenced the 
clamors for the annexation of Texas to this Union for three 
years till the catastrophe of the Van Buren Administration. 
The people of the free States were lulled into the belief that 
the whole project was abandoned, and that they should hear 
no more of slave-trade cravings for the annexation of Texas. 
Had Harrison lived they would have heard no more of them 
to this day, but no sooner was John Tyler installed in the 
President's House than nullification and Texas and war with 
Mexico rose again upon the surface, with eye steadily fixed 
upon the Polar Star of Southern slave-dealing supremacy in 
the government of the Union," 



268 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

nothing could be more abhorrent to him than 
this prayer, and that his respect for the right of 
petition was his only motive for presenting this. 
It was suspended under the " gag " rule, and 
its promoters, unless very easily amused, must 
have been sadly disappointed with the fate and 
effect of their joke. On March 5, 1838, he 
received from Rocky Mount in Virginia a letter 
and petition praying that the House would ar- 
raign at its bar and forever expel John Quincy 
Adams. He presented both documents, with 
a resolution asking that they be referred to a 
committee for investigation and report. His 
enemies in the House saw that he was sure 
to have the best of the sport if the matter 
should be pursued, and succeeded in laying it 
on tlie table. Waddy Thompson thoughtfully 
improved the opportunity to mention to Mr. 
Adams that he also had received a petition, 
" numerously signed," praying for Mr. Adams's 
expulsion, but had never presented it. In the 
following May Mr. Adams presented another 
petition of like tenor. Dromgoole said that he 
supposed it was a " quiz," and that he would 
move to lay it on the table, " unless the gentle- 
man from Massachusetts wished to give it an- 
other direction." Mr. Adams said that "the 
gentleman from Massachusetts cared very little 
about it," and it found the limbo of the " table." 



In the house of representatives 269 

To this same period belongs the memorable 
tale of Mr. Adams's attempt to present a peti- 
tion from slaves. On February 6, 1837, he 
brought in some two hundred abolition peti- 
tions. He closed with one against the slave- 
trade in the District of Columbia purportmg 
to be signed by " nine ladies of Fredericksburg, 
Virginia," whom he declined to name because, 
as he said, in the present disposition of the 
country, " he did not know what might happen 
to them if he did name them." Indeed, he 
added, he was not sure that the petition was 
genuine ; he had said, when he began to pre- 
sent his petitions, that some among them were 
so peculiar that he was in doubt as to their 
genuineness, and this fell within the descrip- 
tion. Apparently he had concluded and was 
about to take his seat, when he quicldy caught 
up another sheet, and said that he held in his 
hand a paper concerning which he should wish 
to have the decision of the Speaker before pre- 
senting it. It purported to be a petition from 
twenty-two slaves, and he would like to know 
whether it came within the rule of the House 
concerning petitions relating to slavery. The 
Speaker, in manifest confusion, said that he 
coidd not answer the question until he knew 
the contents of the document. Mr. Adams, 
remarking that " it was one of those petitions 



270 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

which had occurred to his mind as not being 
what it purported to be," proposed to send it 
up to the Chair for inspection. Objection was 
made to this, and the Speaker said that the 
circumstances were so extraordinary that he 
would take the sense of the House. That body, 
at first inattentive, now became interested, and 
no sooner did a knowledge of what was going 
on spread among those present than great 
excitement prevailed. Members were hastily 
brought in from the lobbies ; many tried to 
speak, and from parts of the hall cries of 
" Expel him ! Expel him ! " were heard. For 
a brief interval no one of the enraged Southern- 
ers was equal to the unforeseen emergency. 
Mr. Haynes moved the rejection of the peti- 
tion. Mr. Lewis deprecated this motion, being 
of opinion that the House must inflict punish- 
ment on the gentleman from Massachusetts. 
Mr. Haynes thereupon withdrew a motion which 
was so obviously inadequate to the vindictive 
gravity of the occasion. Mr. Grantland stood 
ready to second a motion to punish Mr. Adams, 
and Mr. Lewis said that if punishment should 
not be meted out it would "be better for the 
representatives from the slave-holding States to 
go home at once." Mr. Alford said that so 
soon as the petition should be presented he 
would move that it should " be taken from the 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 271 

House and burned." At last Mr. Thompson 
got a resolution into shape as follows : — 

"That the Hon. John Quincy Adams, by the at- 
tempt just made by him to introduce a petition pur- 
porting on its face to be from slaves, has been guilty 
of a gross disrespect to this House, and that he be 
instantly brought to the bar to receive the severe 
censure of the Speaker." 

In supporting this resolution he said that 
Mr. Adams's action was in gross and wilful vio- 
lation of the rules of the House and an insult 
to its members. He even threatened criminal 
proceedings before the grand jury of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, saying that if that body had 
the " proper intelligence and spirit " people 
might " yet see an incendiary brought to con- 
dign punishment." Mr. Haynes, not satisfied 
with Mr. Thompson's resolution, proposed a 
substitute to the effect that Mr. Adams had 
"rendered himself justly liable to the severest 
censure of this House and is censured accord- 
ingly." Then there ensued a little more excited 
speech-making and another resolution, that Mr. 
Adams, 

" by his attempt to introduce into this House a 
petition from slaves for the abolition of slavery in 
the District of Columbia, has committed an outrage 
on the feelings of the people of a large portion of this 



272 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

Union ; a flagrant contempt on the dignity of this 
House ; and, by extending to slaves a privilege only 
belonging to freemen, directly incites the slave pop- 
ulation to insurrection ; and that the said member be 
forthwith called to the bar of the House and be cen^ 
eured by the Speaker." 

Mr. Lewis remained of opinion that it might 
be best for the Southern members to go home, 
— a proposition which afterwards drew forth a 
flaming speech from Mr. Alford, who, far from 
inclining to go home, was ready to stay " mitil 
this fair city is a field of Waterloo and this 
beautiful Potomac a river of blood." Mr. 
Patton, of Virginia, was the first to speak a 
few words to bring members to their senses, 
pertinently asking whether Mr. Adams had 
" attempted to offer " this petition, and whether 
it did indeed pray for the abolition of slavery. 
It might be well, he suggested, for his friends 
to be sure of their facts before going further. 
Then at last Mr. Adams, who had not at all 
lost his head in the general hurly-burly, rose 
and said, that amid these numerous resolutions 
charging him with " high crimes and misde- 
meanors " and calling him to the bar of the 
House to answer for the same, he had thought it 
proper to remain silent until the House should 
take some action ; that he did not suppose 
that, if he should be brought to the bar of the 



IN THE HOUSE OF KEPRESENTATIVES 273 

House, lie should be " struck mute by the pre- 
vious question " before he should have been 
given an opportunity to " say a word or two " 
in his own defence. As to the facts : " I did 
not present the petition," he said, " and I ap- 
peal to the Speaker to say that I did not. . . . 
I intended to take the decision of the Speaker 
before I went one step towards presenting or 
offering to present that petition." The contents 
of the petition, should the House ever choose 
to read it, he continued, would render necessary 
some amendments at least in the last resolution, 
since the prayer was that slavery should not 
be abolished ! " The gentleman from Alabama 
may perchance find, that the object of this peti- 
tion is precisely what he desires to accomplish ; 
and that these slaves who have sent this paper 
to me are his auxiliaries instead of being his op- 
ponents." 

These remarks caused some discomfiture 
among the Southern members, who were glad 
to have time for deliberation given them by a 
maundering speech from Mr. Mann, of New 
York, who talked about " the deplorable spec- 
tacle shown off every petition day by the hon- 
orable member from Massachusetts in present- 
ing the abolition petitions of his infatuated 
friends and constituents," charged Mr. Adams 
with running counter to the sense of the whole 



274 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

country with a " violence paralleled only by 
tlie revolutionary madness of desjDeration," and 
twitted him with his political friendlessness, 
with his age, and with the insinuation of wan- 
ing faculties and judgment. This little phial 
having been emptied, Mr. Thompson arose and 
angrily assailed Mr. Adams for contemptuously 
trifling with the House, which charge he based 
upon the entirely unproved assumption that 
the petition was not a genuine document. He 
concluded by presenting new resolutions bet- 
ter adapted to the recent development of the 
case : — 

" 1. That the Hon. John Quincy Adams, by an 
effort to present a petition from slaves, has committed 
a gross contempt of this House. 

" 2. That the member from Massachusetts above- 
named, by creating the impression and leaving the 
House under such imj^ression, that the said petition 
was for the abolition of slavery, when he knew that 
it was not, has trifled with the House. 

" 3. That the Hon. John Quincy Adams receive the 
censure of the House for his conduct referred to in 
the preceding resolutions." 

Mr. Pinckney said that the avowal by Mr. 
Adams that he had in his possession the peti- 
tion of slaves was an admission of communi- 
cation with slaves, and so was evidence of col- 
lusion with them; and that Mr. Adams had 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 275 

thus rendered liimself indictable for aiding and 
abetting insurrection. A fortiori^ then, was 
he not amenable to the censure of the House? 
Mr. Haynes, of Georgia, forgetting that the pe- 
tition had not been presented, announced his 
intention of moving that it should be rejected 
subject only to a permission for its withdrawal ; 
another member suggested that, if the petition 
should be disposed of by burning, it would be 
well to commit to the same combustion the 
gentleman who presented it. 

On the next day some more resolutions were 
ready, prepared by Dromgoole, who in his sober 
hours was regarded as the best parliamentarian 
in the Southern party. These were, that Mr. 
Adams 

" by stating in his place that he had in his posses- 
sion a paper purporting to be a petition from slaves, 
and inquiring if it came within the meaning of a re- 
solution heretofore adopted (as prehminary to its 
presentation), has given color to the idea that slaves 
have the right of petition and of his readiness to be 
their organ ; and that for the same he deserves the 
censure of the House. 

" That the aforesaid John Quincy Adams receive a 
censure from the Speaker in the presence of the 
House of Representatives." 

Mr. Alford, in advocating these resolutions, 
talked about " this awf id crisis of our beloved 



276 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

coiiRtry." Mr. Robertson, though opposing 
the resolutions, took pains " strongly to con- 
demn . . . the conduct of the gentleman from 
Massachusetts." Mr. Adams's colleague, Mr. 
Lincoln, spoke in his behalf, so also did Mr. 
Evans, of Maine ; and Caleb Gushing made a 
powerful speech upon his side. Otherwise than 
this Mr. Adams was left to carry on the con- 
test single-handed against the numerous array 
of assailants, all incensed and many fairly sav- 
age. Yet it is a striking proof of the dread 
in which even the united body of hot-blooded 
Southerners stood of this hard fighter from the 
North, that as the debate was drawing to a close, 
after they had all said their say and just before 
his opportunity came for making his elabo- 
rate speech of defence, they suddenly and op- 
portunely became ready to content themselves 
with a mild resolution, which condemned gen- 
erally the presentation of petitions from slaves, 
and, for the disposal of this particular case, 
recited that Mr. Adams had " solemnly dis- 
claimed all design of doing anything disrespect- 
ful to the House," and had " avowed his inten- 
tion not to offer to present " to the House the 
petition of this kind held by him ; that " there- 
fore all further proceedings in regard to his 
conduct do now cease." A sneaking effort by 
Mr. Vanderpoel to close Mr. Adams's mouth 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 277 

by moving the previous question involved too 
much cowardice to be carried ; and so on Febru- 
ary 9 the sorely bated man was at last able to 
begin his final speech. He conducted his de- 
fence with singular spirit and ability, but at too 
great length to admit of even a sketch of what 
he said. He claimed the right of petition for 
slaves, and established it so far as argument can 
establish anything. He alleged that all he had 
done was to ask a question of the Speaker, and 
if he was to be censured for so doing, then how 
much more, he asked, was the Speaker deserv- 
ing of censure who had even put the same 
question to the House, and given as his reason 
for so doing that it was not only of novel but 
of difficult import ! He repudiated the idea 
that any member of the House could be held 
by a grand jury to respond for words spoken 
in debate, and recommended the gentlemen 
who had indulged in such preposterous threats 
" to study a little the first principles of civil 
liberty," excoriating them until they actually 
arose and tried to explain away their own lan- 
guage. He cast infinite ridicule upon the un- 
happy expression of Dromgoole, *' giving color 
to an idea." Referring to the difficulty which 
he encountered by reason of the variety and 
disorder of the resolutions and charges against 
him with which "gentlemen from the South 



278 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

had pounced down upon him like so many 
eagles upon a dove," — there was an exquisite 
sarcasm in the simile ! — he said : " When I 
take up one idea, before I can give color to 
the idea, it has already changed its form and 
presents itself for consideration under other 
colors. . . . What defence can be made against 
this new crime of giving color to ideas ? " As 
for trifling with the House by presenting a 
petition which in the course of debate had be- 
come pretty well known and acknowledged to 
be a hoax designed to lead Mr. Adams into a 
position of embarrassment and danger, he dis- 
claimed any such motive, reminding members 
that he had given warning, when beginning to 
present his petitions, that he was suspicious 
that some among them might not be genuine.^ 
But while denying all intention of trifling with 

^ Mr. Adams afterward said : " I believed the petition signed 
by female names to be genuine. ... I had suspicions that the 
other, purporting- to be from slaves, came really from the hand 
of a master who had prevailed on his slaves to sign it, that 
they might have the appearance of imploring- the menabers 
from the North to cease offering petitions for their emancipa- 
tion, which could have no other tendency than to aggravate 
their servitude, and of being so impatient under the operation 
of petitions in their favor as to pray that the Northern mem- 
bers who should persist in presenting them should be ex- 
pelled." It was a part of the prayer of the petition that Mr. 
Adams should be expelled if he should continue to present 
abolition petitions. 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 279 

the House, he rejected the mercy extended to 
him in the last of the long series of resolutions 
before that body. " I disclaim not," he said, 
" any particle of what I have done, not a sin- 
gle word of what I have said do I unsay ; nay, 
I am ready to do and to say the same to-mor- 
row." He had no notion of aiding in making 
a loophole through which his blundering en- 
emies might escape, even though he himself 
should be accorded the privilege of crawling 
through it with them. At times during his 
speech " there was great agitation in the 
House," but when he closed no one seemed am- 
bitious to reply. His enemies had learned 
anew a lesson, often taught to them before and 
often to be impressed upon them again, that it 
was perilous to come to close quarters with Mr. 
Adams. They gave up all idea of censuring 
him, and were content to apply a very mild 
emollient to their own smarting wounds in the 
shape of a resolution, to the effect that slaves 
did not possess the right of petition secured by 
the Constitution to the people of the United 
States. 

In the winter of 1842-43 the questions arising 
out of the affair of the Creole rendered the 
position then held by Mr. Adams at the head 
of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs ex- 
ceedingly distasteful to the slave-holders. On 



280 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

January 21, 1842, a somewhat singular mani- 
festation of this feeling was made when Mr. 
Adams himself presented a petition from Geor- 
gia praying for his removal from this Chair- 
manship. Upon this he requested to be heard 
in his own behalf. The Southern party, not 
sanguine of any advantage from debating the 
matter, tried to lay it on the table. The peti- 
tion was alleged by Habersham, of Georgia, to 
be undoubtedly another hoax. But Mr. Adams, 
loath to lose a good opportunity, still claimed 
to be heard on the charges made against him 
by the " infamous slave-holders." Mr. Smith, of 
Virginia, said that the House had lately given 
Mr. Adams leave to defend himself against the 
charge of monomania, and asked whether he 
was doing so. Some members cried "Yes! 
Yes ! " ; others shouted " No ! he is establishing 
the fact." The wrangling was at last brought 
to an end by the Speaker's declaration, that the 
petition must lie over for the present. But the 
scene had been only the prelude to one much 
longer, fiercer, and more exciting. No sooner 
was the document thus temporarily disposed of 
than Mr. Adams rose and presented the peti- 
tion of forty-five citizens of Haverhill, Massa- 
chusetts, praying the House "immediately to 
adopt measures peaceably to dissolve the union 
of these States," for the alleged cause of the 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 281 

incompatibility between free and slave-bolding 
communities. He moved " its reference to a 
select committee, with instructions to report an 
answer to the petitioners showing the reasons 
why the prayer of it ought not to be granted." 

In a moment the House was aflame with ex" 
citement. The numerous members who hated 
Mr. Adams thought that at last he was experi- 
encing the divinely sent madness which fore- 
runs destruction. Those who sought his polit- 
ical annihilation felt that the appointed and 
glorious hour of extinction had come ; those 
who had writhed beneath the castigation of his 
invective exulted in the near revenge. While 
one said that the petition should never have 
been brought within the walls of the House, 
and another wished to burn it in the presence 
of the members, Mr. Gilmer, of Virginia, offered 
a resolution, that in presenting the petition 
Mr. Adams " had justly incurred the censure of 
the House." Some objection was made to this 
resolution as not being in order ; but Mr. 
Adams said that he hoped that it would be 
received and debated and that an opportunity 
would be given him to speak in his own de- 
fence ; " especially as the gentleman from Vir- 
ginia had thought proper to play second fiddle 
to his colleague ^ from Accomac." Mr. Gilmer 

1 Henry A. Wise. 



282 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

retorted that lie "played second fiddle to no 
man. He was no fiddler, but was endeavoring 
to prevent the music of him who, 

' In the space of one revolving moon, 
Was statesman, poet, fiddler, and buffoon.' " 

The resolution was then laid on the table. The 
House rose, and Mr. Adams went home and 
noted in his Diary, " evening in meditation," 
for which indeed he had abundant cause. On 
the following day Thomas F. Marshall, of Ken- 
tucky, offered a substitute for Gilmer's resolu- 
tion. This new f ulmination had been prepared 
in a caucus of forty members of the slave-hold- 
ing party, and was long and carefully framed. 
Its preamble recited, in substance, that a peti- 
tion to dissolve the Union, proposing to Congress 
to destroy that which the several members had 
solemnly and officially sworn to support, was a 
" high breach of privilege, a contempt offered to 
this House, a direct proposition to the Legisla- 
ture and each member of it to commit perjury, 
and involving necessarily in its execution and 
its consequences the destruction of our country 
and the crime of high treason : " wherefore it 
was to be resolved that Mr. Adams, in present- 
ing a petition for dissolution, had " offered the 
deepest indignity to the House " and " an insult 
to the people ; " that if " this outrage " should 
be "permitted to pass urrebuked and unpun- 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 283 

ished " he would have " disgraced his country 
... in the eyes of the whole world ; " that for 
this insult and this " wound at the Constitution 
and existence of his country, the peace, the se- 
curity and liberty of the people of these States " 
he " might well be held to merit expulsion from 
the national councils ; " and that " the House 
deem it an act of grace and mercy when they 
only inflict upon him their severest censure ; " 
that so much they must do " for the maintenance 
of their own purity and dignity ; for the rest 
they turned him over to his own conscience and 
the indignation of all true American citizens." 
These resolutions were then advocated by 
Mr. Marshall at great length and with extreme 
bitterness. Mr. Adams replied shortly, stating 
that he should wish to make his full defence at 
a later stage of the debate. Mr. Wise followed 
in a personal and acrimonious harangue ; Mr. 
Everett^ gave some little assistance to Mr. 
Adams, and the House again adjourned. The 
following day Wise continued his speech, very 
elaborately. When he closed, Mr. Adams, who 
had " determined not to interrupt him till he 
had discharged his full cargo of filthy invec- 
tive," rose to " make a preliminary point." He 
questioned the right of the House to entertain 
Marshall's resolutions since the preamble as- 

^ Horace Everett, of Vermont. 



284 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

sumed him to be guilty of the crimes of subor- 
nation of perjury and treason, and the resolu- 
tions themselves censured him as if he had been 
found guilty ; whereas in fact he had not been 
tried upon these charges and of course had not 
been convicted. If he was to be brought to 
trial upon them he asserted his right to have 
the proceedings conducted before a jury of his 
peers, and that the House was not a tribunal 
having this authority. But if he was to be 
tried for contempt, for which alone he could 
lawfully be tried by the House, still there were 
an hundred members sitting on its benches who 
were morally disqualified to judge him, who 
could not give him an impartial trial, because 
they were prejudiced and the question was one 
" on which their personal, pecuniary, and most 
sordid interests were at stake." Such consid- 
erations, he said, ought to prevent many gen- 
tlemen from voting, as Mr. Wise had avowed 
that they would prevent him. Here Wise in- 
terrupted to disavow that he was influenced by 
any such reasons, but rather, he said, by the 
" personal loathing, dread, and contempt I feel 
for the man." Mr. Adams, continuing after this 
pleasant interjection, admitted that he was in 
the power of the majority, who might try him 
against law and condemn him against right if 
they would. 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 285 

" If they say they will try me, they must try me. 
If they say they will punish me, they must punish 
me. But if they say that in peace and mercy they 
will spare me expulsion, I disdain and cast away their 
mercy ; and I ask them if they will come to such a 
trial and expel me. I defy them. I have constituents 
to go to who will have something to say if this House 
expels me. Nor will it be long before the gentlemen 
will see me here again." 

Such was the fierce temper and indomitable 
courage of this inflexible old man ! He flung 
contempt in the face of those who had him 
wholly in their power, and in the same breath 
in which he acknowledged that power he dared 
them to use it. He charged Wise with the 
guilt of innocent blood, in connection with cer- 
tain transactions in a duel, and exasperated 
that gentleman into crying out that the " charge 
made by the gentleman from Massachusetts was 
as base and black a lie as the traitor was base 
and black who uttered it." When he was asked 
by the Speaker to put his point of order in writ- 
ing, — his own request to the like effect in an- 
other case having been refused shortly before, 
— he tauntingly congratulated that gentleman 
" upon his discovery of the expediency of having 
points of order reduced to writing — a favor 
which he had repeatedly denied to me." When 
Mr. Wise was speaking, " I interrupted him oc- 



286 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

casionally," says Mr. Adams, " sometimes to 
provoke liim into absurdity." As usual lie was 
left to fight out Ms desperate battle substan- 
tially single-handed. Only Mr. Everett occa- 
sionally helped him a very little ; while one or 
two others who spoke against the resolutions 
were careful to explain that they felt no per- 
sonal good will towards Mr. Adams. But he 
faced the odds courageously. It was no new 
thing for him to be pitted alone against a " solid 
South." Outside the walls of the House he had 
some sympathy and some assistance tendered 
him by individuals, among others by Rufus 
Choate then in the Senate, and by his own col- 
leagues from Massachusetts. This support aided 
and cheered him somewhat, but could not pre- 
vent substantially the whole burden of the labor 
and brunt of the contest from bearing upon him 
alone. Among the external manifestations of 
feeling, those of hostility were naturally largely 
in the ascendant. The newspapers of Washing- 
ton — the " Globe " and the " National Intelligen- 
cer " — which reported the debates, daily filled 
their columns with all the abuse and invective 
which was poured forth against him, while they 
gave the most meagre statements, or none at 
all, of what he said in his own defence. Among 
other amenities he received from North Carolina 
an anonymous letter threatening him with assas* 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 287 

sination, having also an engraved portrait of 
him with the mark of a rifle-ball in the fore- 
head, and the motto " to stop the music of 
John Quincy Adams," etc., etc. This missive 
he read and displayed in the House, but it was 
received with profound indifference by men who 
would not have greatly objected to the execu- 
tion of the barbarous threat. 

The prolonged struggle cost him deep anxiety 
and sleepless nights, which in the declining 
years of a laborious life told hardly upon his 
aged frame. But against all odds of numbers 
and under all disadvantages of circumstances 
the past repeated itself, and Mr. Adams alone 
won a victory over all the cohorts of the South. 
Several attempts had been made during the 
debate to lay the whole subject on the table. 
Mr. Adams said that he would consent to this 
simply because his defence would be a very 
long affair, and he did not wish to have the 
time of the House consumed and the business 
of the nation brought to a stand solely for the 
consideration of his personal affairs. These pro- 
positions failing, he began his speech and soon 
was making such headway that even his adver- 
saries were constrained to see that the opportu- 
nity which they had conceived to be within their 
grasp was eluding them, as had so often hap- 
pened before. Accordingly on February 7 the 



288 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

motion to " lay the whole subject on the table 
forever " was renewed and carried by one hun- 
dred and six votes to ninety-three. The House 
then took up the original petition and refused 
to receive it by one hundred and sixty-six to 
forty. No sooner was this consummation reached 
than the irrepressible champion rose to his feet 
and proceeded with his budget of anti-slavery 
petitions, of which he " presented nearly two 
hundred, till the House adjourned." 

Within a very short time there came further 
and convincing proof that Mr. Adams was vic- 
tor. On February 26 he writes : " D. D. Bar- 
nard told me he had received a petition from 
his District, signed by a small number of very 
respectable persons, praying for a dissolution of 
the Union. He said he did not know what to 
do with it. I dined with him." By March 14 
this dinner bore fruit. Mr. Barnard had made 
up his mind " what to do with it." He pre- 
sented it, with a motion that it be referred to a 
select committee with instructions to report ad- 
versely to its prayer. The well-schooled House 
now took the presentation without a ripple of 
excitement, and was content with simply voting 
not to receive the petition. 

In the midst of the toil and anxiety imposed 
upon Mr. Adams by this effort to censure and 
disgrace him, the scheme, already referred to, 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 289 

for displacing him from the chairmanship of the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs had been actively 
prosecuted. He was notified that the Southern 
members had formed a cabal for removing him 
and putting Caleb Cushing in his place. The 
plan was, however, temporarily checked, and so 
soon as Mr. Adams had triumphed in the House 
the four Southern members of the committee 
sent to the House a paper begging to be excused 
from further services on the committee, " because 
from recent occurrences it was doubtful whether 
the House would remove the chairman, and they 
were unwilling to serve with one in whom they 
had no confidence." The fugitives were granted, 
" by a shout of acclamation," the excuse which 
they sought for so welcome a reason, and the 
same was also done for a fifth member. Three 
more of the same party, nominated to fill these 
vacancies, likewise asked to be excused, and were 
so. Their letters preferring this request were 
" so insulting personally " to Mr. Adams as to 
constitute "gross breaches of privilege." "The 
Speaker would have refused to receive or present 
them had they referred to any other man in the 
House." They were published, but Mr. Adams, 
after some hesitation, determined not to give 
theni the importance which would result from 
any public notice in the House upon his part. 
He could afford to keep silence, and judged 
wisely in doing so. 



290 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

Amid all the animosity and rancor enter- 
tained towards Mr. Adams, there yet lurked 
a degree of respect for his courage, honesty, 
and ability which showed itself upon occasion, 
doubtless not a little to the surprise of the 
members themselves who were hardly conscious 
that they entertained such sentiments until 
startled into a manifestation of them. An emi- 
nent instance of this is to be found in the story 
of the troubled days preceding the organization 
of the twenty-sixth Congress. On December 
2, 1839, the members elect of that body came 
together in Washington, with the knowledge 
that the seats of five gentlemen from New Jer- 
sey, who brought with them the regular guber- 
natorial certificate of their election, would be 
contested by ^ye other claimants. According 
to custom Garland, clerk of the last House, 
called the assemblage to order and began the 
roll-call. When he came to New Jersey he 
called the name of one member from that State, 
and then said that there were five other seats 
which were contested, and that not feeling 
authorized to decide the dispute he would pass 
over the names of the New Jersey members 
and proceed with the roll till the House should 
be formed, when the question could be decided. 
Plausible as appeared this abstention from an 
exercise of authority in so grave a dispute, it 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 291 

was nevertheless really an assumption and not a 
deprecation of power, and as such was altogether 
unjustifiable. The clerk's sole business was to 
call the names of those persons who presented 
the usual formal credentials ; he had no right to 
take cognizance that the seats of any such 
persons might be the subject of a contest, which 
could properly be instituted, conducted, and de- 
termined only before and by the House itself 
when organized. But his course was not innocent 
of a purpose. So evenly was the House divided 
that the admission or exclusion of these five 
members in the first instance would determine 
the political complexion of the body. The 
members holding the certificates were Whigs ; 
if the clerk could keep them out until the 
organization of the House should be completed, 
then the Democrats would control that organiza- 
tion, would elect their Speaker, and through him 
would make up the committees. 

Naturally enough this arrogation of power 
by the clerk, the motives and consequences of 
which were abundantly obvious, raised a terrible 
storm. The debate continued till four o'clock 
in the afternoon, when a motion was made to 
adjourn. The clerk said that he could put no 
question, not even of adjournment, till the House 
should be formed. But there was a general cry 
to adjourn, and the clerk declared the House 



292 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

adjourned. Mr. Adams went liome and wrote 
in his Diary that the clerk's " two decisions form 
together an insurmountable objection to the 
transaction of any business, and an impossibility 
of organizing the House. . . . The most curious 
part of the case is, that his own election as clerk 
depends upon the exclusion of the New Jersey 
members." The next day was consumed in a 
fierce debate as to whether the clerk should be 
allowed to read an explanatory statement. Again 
the clerk refused to put the question of adjourn- 
ment, but, " upon inspection," declared an ad- 
journment. Some called out "a count! a count! " 
while most rushed out of the hall, and Wise 
cried loudly, " Now we are a mob ! " The next 
day there was more violent debating, but no 
progress towards a decision. Various party 
leaders offered resolutions, none of which ac- 
complished anything. The condition was ridic- 
ulous, disgraceful, and not without serious pos- 
sibilities of danger. Neither did any light of 
encouragement break in any quarter. In the 
crisis there seemed, by sudden consent of all, to 
be a turning towards Mr. Adams. Prominent 
men of both parties came to him and begged 
him to interfere. He was reluctant to plunge 
into the embroilment ; but the great urgency 
and the abundant assurances of support placed 
little less than actual compulsion upon him. 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 293 

Accordingly on December 5 he rose to address 
the House. He was greeted as a Deus ex 
machina. Not speaking to the clerk, but turn- 
ing directly to the assembled members, he be- 
gan : " Fellow citizens ! Members elect of the 
twenty-sixth Congress ! " He could not resist 
the temptation of administering a brief but se- 
vere and righteous castigation to Garland ; and 
then, ignoring that functionary altogether, pro- 
ceeded to beg the House to organize itself. To 
this end he said that he would offer a resolution 
" ordering the clerk to call the members from 
New Jersey possessing the credentials from the 
Governor of that State." There had been al- 
ready no lack of resolutions, but the difficulty 
lay in the clerk's obstinate refusal to put the 
question upon them. So now the puzzled cry 
went up : " How shall the question be put ? " 
" I intend to put the question myself," said the 
dauntless old man, wholly equal to the emer- 
gency. A tumult of applause resounded upon 
all sides. Rhett, of South Carolina, sprang up 
and offered a resolution, that Williams, of North 
Carolina, the oldest member of the House, be 
appointed chairman of the meeting; but upon 
objection by Williams, he substituted the name 
of Mr. Adams, and put the question. He was 
" answered by an almost universal shout in the 
affirmative." Whereupon Rhett and Williams 



294 JOHN QUmCY ADAMS 

conducted the old man to tlie chair. It was 
a proud moment. Wise, of Virginia, afterward 
said, addressing a complimentary speech to Mr. 
Adams, " and if, when you shall be gathered to 
your fathers, I were asked to select the words 
which in my judgment are calculated to give at 
once the best character of the man, I would in- 
scribe upon your tomb this sentence, ' I will put 
the question myself ! ' " Doubtless Wise and a 
good many more would have been glad enough 
to put almost any epitaph on a tombstone for 
Mr. Adams.^ It must, however, be acknow- 
ledged that the impetuous Southerners behaved 
very handsomely by their arch foe on this oc- 
casion, and were for once as chivalrous in fact as 
they always were in profession. 

Smooth water had by no means been reached 
when Mr. Adams was placed at the helm ; on 
the contrary, the buffeting became only the 
more severe when the members were no longer 
restrained by a lurking dread of grave disaster 
if not of utter shipwreck. Between two bitterly 
incensed and evenly divided parties engaged in 
a struggle for an important prize, Mr. Adams, 
having no strictly lawful authority pertaining 

^ Not quite two years later, pending a motion to reprimand 
Mr. Wise for fighting- with a member on the floor of the 
House, that gentleman took pains insultingly to say, " that 
there was but one man in the House whose judgment he was 
unwilling to abide by," and that man was Mr. Adams. 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 295 

to his singular and anomalous position, was hard 
taxed to perform liis functions. It is impos- 
sible to follow the intricate and acrimonious ' 
quarrels of the eleven days which succeeded 
until on December 16, upon the eleventh ballot, 
K. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, was elected 
Speaker, and Mr. Adams was relieved from the 
most arduous duty imposed upon him during his 
life. In the course of the debates there had 
been " much vituperation and much equally 
unacceptable compliment " lavished upon him. 
After the organization of the House, there was 
some talk of moving a vote of thanks, but he 
entreated that it should not be done. " In the 
rancorous and bitter temper of the Administra- 
tion party, exasperated by their disappointment 
in losing their Speaker, the resolution of thanks," 
he said, "would have been lost if it had been 
offered." However this might have been, his- 
tory has determined this occurrence to have 
been one of the most brilliant episodes in a life 
which had many distinctions. 

A few incidents indicative of respect must 
have been welcome enough in the solitary fight- 
laden career of Mr. Adams. He needed some 
occasional encouragement to keep him from 
sinking into despondency ; for though he was of 
so unyielding and belligerent a disposition, of 
such ungracious demeanor, so uncompromising 



296 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

witli friend and foe, yet he was a man of deep 
and strong feelings, and in a way even very 
sensitive though a proud reserve kept the secret 
of this quality so close that few suspected it. 
His Diary during his Congressional life shows a 
man doing his duty sternly rather than cheer- 
fully, treading resolutely a painful path, having 
the reward which attends upon a clear conscience, 
but neither light-hearted nor often even happy. 
Especially he was frequently disappointed at the 
returns which he received from others, and con- 
sidered himself " ill-treated by every public man 
whom circumstances had brought into competi- 
tion with him ; " they had returned his " acts of 
kindness and services" with "gross injustice." 
The reflection did not induce him to deflect his 
course in the least, but it was made with much 
bitterness of spirit. Toward the close of 1835 
he writes : — 

" Among the dark spots in hunian nature which in 
the course of my life I have observed, the devices of 
rivals to ruin me have been sorry pictures of the 
heart of man. . . . H. G. Otis, Theophilus Parsons, 
Timothy Pickering, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, 
Jonathan Russell, William H. Crawford, John C. 
Calhoun, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, and John 
Davis, W. B. Giles, and John Randolph, have used 
up their faculties in base and dirty tricks to thwart 
my progress in life and destroy my character." 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 297 

Truly a long and exhaustive list of enmities ! 
One can but suspect tliat a man of so many 
quarrels must have been quarrelsome. Certain 
it is, however, that in nearly every difference 
which Mr. Adams had in his life a question of 
right and wrong, of moral or political principle, 
had presented itself to him. His intention was 
always good, though his manner was so habit- 
ually irritating. He himself says that to nearly 
all these men — Russell alone specifically ex- 
cepted — he had " returned good for evil," that 
he had " never wronged any one of them," and 
had even " neglected too much his self-defence 
against them." In October, 1833, he said : " I 
subject myself to so much toil and so much 
enmity, with so very little apparent fruit, that 
I sometimes ask myseK whether I do not mis- 
take my own motives. The best actions of my 
life make me nothing but enemies." In Feb- 
ruary, 1841, he made a powerful speech in 
castigation of Henry A. Wise, who had been 
upholding in Southern fashion slavery, duelling, 
and nullification. He received afterward some 
messages of praise and sympathy, but noted 
with pain that his colleagues thought it one of 
his " eccentric, wild, extravagant freaks of pas- 
sion ; " and with a pathetic sense of loneliness he 
adds : " All around me is cold and discourao^ins^ 
and my own feelings are wound up to a pitch 



298 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

tliat my •reason can scarcely endure." A few 
days later he had the pleasure of hearing one of 
the members say, in a speech, that there was an 
opinion among many that Mr. Adams was in- 
sane and did not know what he said. While a 
fight was going on such incidents only fired his 
blood, but afterwards the reminiscence affected 
his spirits cruelly. 

In August, 1840, he writes that he has been 
twelve years submitting in silence to the " foul- 
est and basest aspersions," to which it would 
have been waste of time to make reply, since 
the public ear had not been open to him. " Is 
the time arriving," he asks, " for me to speak ? 
or must I go down to the grave and leave pos- 
terity to do justice to my father and to me? " 

He has had at least the advantage of saying 
his say to posterity in a very effective and con- 
vincing shape in that Diary, which so discom- 
fited and enraged General Jackson. There is 
plain enough speaking in its pages, which were 
a safety valve whereby much wrath escaped. 
Mr. Adams had the faculty of forcible expres- 
sion when he chose to employ it, as may be seen 
from a few specimen sentences. On March 28, 
1840, he remarks that Atherton " this day emit- 
ted half an hour of his rotten breath against '' 
a pending bill. Atherton was infamous as the 
mover of the " gag " resolution, and Mr. Adams 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 299 

abhorred him accordingly. Duncan, of Cincin- 
nati, mentioned as " delivering a dose of balder- 
dash," is described as " the prime bully of the 
Kinderhook Democracy," without " perception 
of any moral distinction between truth and 
falsehood, ... a thorough - going hack-dema- 
gogue, coarse, vulgar, and impudent, with a 
vein of low humor exactly suited to the rabble 
of a popular city and equally so to the taste of 
the present House of Representatives." Other 
similar bits of that pessimism and belief in the 
deterioration of the times, so common in old 
men, occasionally appear. In August, 1835, he 
thinks that " the signs of the times are porten- 
tous. All the tendencies of legislation are to 
the removal of restrictions from the vicious and 
the guilty, and to the exercise of all the powers 
of government, legislative, judicial, and execu- 
tive, by lawless assemblages of individuals." De- 
cember 27, 1838, he looks upon the Senate and 
the House, " the cream of the land, the culled 
darlings of fifteen millions," and observes that 
" tlie remarkable phenomenon that they present 
is the level of intellect and of morals upon which 
they stand ; and this universal mediocrity is the 
basis ujDon which the liberties of this nation re- 
pose." In July, 1840, he thinks that 

" parties are falling into profligate factions. I 
have seen this before ; but the worst symptom now is 



300 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

the change in the manners of the people. The con^ 
tinuance of the present Administration . . . will oj)en 
wide all the flood-gates of corruption. Will a change 
produce reform ? Pause and ponder ! Slavery, the 
Indians, the public lands, the collection and disburse- 
ment of public money, the tariff, and foreign affairs : 
— what is to become of them ? " 

On January 29, 1841, Henry A. Wise uttered 
" a motley compound of eloquence and folly, of 
braggart impudence and childish vanity, of self- 
laudation and Virginian narrow-mindedness.'* 
After liim Hubbard, of Alabama, " began grunt- 
ing against the tariff." Three days later Black, 
of Georgia, " poured forth his black bile " for 
an hour and a half. The next week we find 
Clifford, of Maine, "muddily bothering his 
trickster invention " to get over a rule of the 
House, and " snapping like a mackerel at a red 
rag " at the suggestion of a way to do so. In 
July, 1841, we again hear of Atherton as a 
" cross-grained numskull . . . snarling against 
the loan bill." With such peppery passages 
in great abundance the Diary is thickly and 
piquantly besprinkled. They are not always 
pleasant, perhaps not even always amusing, but 
they display the marked element of censorious- 
ness in Mr. Adams's character, which it is ne- 
cessary to appreciate in order to understand some 
parts of his career. 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 301 

If Mr. Adams never had the cheerful sup- 
port of popularity, so neither did he often have 
the encouragement of success. He said that 
he was paying in his declining years for the 
good luck which had attended the earlier por- 
tion of his life. On December 14, 1833, hQ 
calculates that he has three fourths of the peo- 
ple of Massachusetts against him, and by es- 
tranging the anti-Masons he is about to become 
obnoxious to the whole. " My public life will 
terminate by the alienation from me of all man- 
kind. ... It is the experience of all ages that 
the people grow weary of old men, I cannot 
flatter myself that I shall escape the common 
law of our nature." Yet he acknowledges that 
he is unable to " abstract himself from the great 
questions which agitate the country." Soon 
after he again writes in the same vein : " To 
be forsaken by all mankind seems to be the 
destiny that awaits my last days." August 6, 
1835, he gives as his reason for not accepting 
an invitation to deliver a discourse, that "in- 
stead of having any beneficial influence upon 
the public mind, it would be turned as an in- 
strument of obloquy against myself." So it 
had been, as he enumerates, with his exertions 
against Freemasonry, his labors for internal 
improvement, for the manufacturing interest, 
for domestic industry, for free labor, for the 



302 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

disinterested aid then lately brought by him to 
Jackson in the dispute with France ; " so it 
will be to the end of my political life." 

When to unpopularity and reiterated disap- 
pointment we add the physical ills of old age, it 
no longer surprises us to find Mr. Adams at 
times harsh and bitter beyond the excuse of the 
occasion. That he was a man of strong phy- 
sique and of extraordinary powers of endurance, 
often surpassing those of young and vigorous 
men, is evident. For example, one day in 
March, 1840, he notes incidentally : "I walked 
home and found my family at dinner. From 
my breakfast yesterday morning until one this 
afternoon, twenty-eight hours, I had fasted." 
Many a time he showed like, if not quite equal 
vigor. But he had been a hard worker all his 
life, and testing the powers of one's constitution 
does not tend to their preservation ; he was by 
no means free from the woes of the flesh or from 
the depression which comes with years and the 
dread of decrepitude. Already as early as 
October 7, 1833, he fears that his health is "ir- 
retrievable ; " he gets but five hours a night of 
" disturbed unquiet sleep — full of tossings." 
February 17, 1834, his " voice was so hoarse and 
feeble that it broke repeatedly, and he could 
scarcely articulate. It is gone forever," he very 
mistakenl}^ but despondingly adds, "and it is 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 303 

in vain for me to contend against the decay of 
time and nature." His enemies found little 
truth in this foreboding for many sessions there- 
after. Only a year after he had performed his 
feat of fasting for twenty-eight hours of busi- 
ness, he received a letter from a stranger advis- 
ing him to retire. He admits that perhaps he 
ought to do so, but says that more than sixty 
years of public life have made activity necessary 
to him ; it is the " weakness of his nature " 
which he has " intellect enough left to perceive 
but not energy to control," so that " the world 
will retire from me before I shall retire from 
the world." 

The brief sketch which can be given in a 
volume of this size of so long and so busy a 
life does not suffice even to indicate all its 
many industries. The anti-slavery labors of 
Mr. Adams during his Congressional career 
were alone an abundant occupation for a man 
in the prime of life ; but to these he added a 
wonderful list of other toils and interests. He 
was not only an incessant student in history, 
politics, and literature, but he also constantly 
invaded the domain of science. He was Chair- 
man of the Congressional Committee on the 
Smithsonian bequest, and for several years he 
gave much time and attention to it, striving to 
give the fund a direction in favor of science; 



304 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

lie hoped to make it subservient to a plan wliich 
he had long cherished for the building of a 
noble national observatory. He had much 
committee work ; he received many visitors ; 
he secured hours of leisure for his favorite pur- 
suit of composing poetry ; he delivered an enor- 
mous number of addresses and speeches upon 
all sorts of occasions ; he conducted an exten- 
sive correspondence ; he was a very devout man, 
regularly going to church and reading three 
chapters in his Bible every day; and he kept 
up faithfully his colossal Diary. For several 
months in the midst of Congressional duties he 
devoted great labor, thought, and anxiety to 
the famous cause of the slaves of the Amistad, 
in which he was induced to act as counsel be- 
fore the Supreme Court. Such were the labors 
of his declining age. To men of ordinary cali- 
bre the multiplicity of his acquirements and 
achievements is confounding and incredible. 
He worked his brain and his body as unspar- 
ingly as if they had been machines insensible to 
the pleasure or necessity of rest. Surprisingly 
did they submit to his exacting treatment, last- 
ing in good order and condition far beyond 
what was then the average of life and vigorous 
faculties among his contemporaries engaged in 
public affairs. 

In August, 1842, while he was still tarrying 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 305 

in tlie unwholesome heats of Washington, he 
had some symptoms which he thought premon- 
itory, and he speaks of the next session of Con- 
gress as probably the last which he should ever 
attend. March 25, 1844, he gives a painful 
sketch of himself. Physical disability, he says, 
must soon put a stop to his Diary. That morn- 
ing he had risen " at four, and with smarting, 
bloodshot eyes and shivering hand, still sat down 
and wrote to fill up the chasm of the closing 
days of last week." If his remaining days were 
to be few he was at least resolved to make them 
long for purposes of unremitted labor. 

But he had one great joy and distinguished 
triumph still in store for him. From the time 
when the '' gag " rule had been first established, 
Mr. Adams had kept up an unbroken series of 
attacks upon it at all times and by all means. 
At the beginning of the several sessions, when 
the rules were established by the House, he 
always moved to strike out this one. Year 
after year his motion was voted down, but year 
after year he renewed it with invincible per- 
severance. The majorities against him began 
to dwindle till they became almost impercep- 
tible ; in 1842 it was a majority of four ; in 
1843, of three ; in 1844 the struggle was pro- 
tracted for weeks, and Mr. Adams all but car- 
ried the day. It was evident that victory was 



306 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

not far off, and a kind fate had destined him to 
live not only to see but himself to win it. On 
December 3, 1844, he made his usual motion 
and called for the yeas and nays ; a motion was 
made to lay his motion on the table, and upon 
that also the question was taken by yeas and 
nays — eighty-one yeas, one hundred and four 
nays, and his motion was not laid on the table. 
The question was then put upon it, and it was 
carried by the handsome vote of one hundred 
and eight to eighty. In that moment the 
" g^g " ^^il® became a thing of the past, and 
Mr. Adams had conquered in his last fight. 
" Blessed, forever blessed, be the name of God 1 '* 
he writes in recording the event. A week 
afterwards some anti-slavery petitions were re- 
ceived and actually referred to the Committee 
on the District of Columbia. This glorious con- 
summation having been achieved, this advanced 
stage in the long conflict having been reached, 
Mr. Adams could not hope for life to see an- 
other goal passed. His work was nearly done ; 
he had grown aged, and had worn himself out 
faithfully toiling in the struggle which must 
hereafter be fought through its coming phases 
and to its final success by others, younger men 
than he, though none of them certainly having 
over him any other militant advantage save 
only the accident of youth. 



m THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 307 

His mental powers were not less than at any- 
time in the past when, on November 19, 1846, 
he was struck by paralysis in the street in Bos- 
ton. He recovered from the attack, however, 
sufficiently to resume his duties in Washington 
some three months later. His reappearance in 
the House was marked by a pleasing incident : 
all the members rose together ; business was for 
the moment suspended ; his old accustomed seat 
was at once surrendered to him by the gentleman 
to whom it had fallen in the allotment, and he 
was formally conducted to it by two members. 
After this, though punctual in attendance, he 
only once took part in debate. On February 
21, 1848, he appeared in his seat as usual. At 
half past one in the afternoon the Speaker was 
rising to put a question, when he was suddenly 
interrupted by cries of " Stop ! Stop ! — Mr. 
Adams ! " Some gentlemen near- Mr. Adams 
had thought that he was striving to rise to ad- 
dress the Speaker, when in an instant he fell 
over insensible. The members thronged around 
him in great confusion. The House hastily ad- 
journed. He was placed on a sofa and removed 
first to the hall of the rotunda and then to the 
Speaker's room. Medical men were in attend- 
ance but could be of no service in the presence 
of death. The stern old fighter lay dying almost 
on the very field of so many battles and in the 



308 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

very tracks in which he had so often stood erect 
and unconquerable, taking and dealing so many 
mighty blows. Late in the afternoon some in- 
articulate mutterings were construed into the 
words, "Thank the officers of the House." 
Soon again he said intelligibly, "This is the 
last of earth ! I am content ! " It was his 
extreme utterance. He lay thereafter uncon- 
scious till the evening of the 23d, when he 
passed quietly away. 

He lies buried "under the portal of the 
church at Quincy " beside his wife, who sur- 
vived him four years, his father and his mother. 
The memorial tablet inside the church bears 
upon it the words " Alteri Sseculo," — surely 
never more justly or appropriately applied to 
any man than to John Quincy Adams, hardly 
abused and cruelly misappreciated in his own 
day but whom subsequent generations already 
begin to honor as one of the greatest of Amer- 
ican statesmen, not only preeminent in ability 
and acquirements, but even more to be honored 
for profound, immutable honesty of purpose and 
broad, noble humanity of aims. 



INDEX 



4 



INDEX 



Abolitionists, their part in anti- 
slavery movement, 244, 245 ; urge 
Adams to extreme actions, 254, 

Adams, Abigail, shows battle of 
Bunker Hill to her son, 2 ; life 
near Boston during siege, 2, 3 ; 
letter of J. Q. Adams to, on keep- 
ing journal, 5 ; warns him against 
asking office from his father as 
President, 23 ; his spirited reply, 
23. 

Adams, C. F., on beginning of Ad- 
ams's diary, 6 ; on Adams's state- 
ment of Monroe doctrine, 131. 

Adams, John, influence of his ca- 
reer in Revolution upon his son, 
2 ; leaves family near Boston 
while attending Continental Con- 
gress, 2,3; letter of his son to, 
on reading, 3 ; first mission to 
France, 4 ; second one, 4 ; ad- 
vises his son to keep a diary and 
copies of letters, 5 ; makes treaty 
of peace, 13; appointed Minister 
to England, 14 ; elected Presi- 
dent, 23 ; at Washington's sug- 
gestion, appoints J.Q. Adams Min- 
ister to Prussia, 24 ; recalls him, 
25 ; his rage at defeat by Jeffer- 
son, 25, 26 ; disrupts Federalist 
party by French mission, 26 ; his 
rivalry with and hatred for Ham- 
ilton, 26, 27 ; charges defeat to 
Hamilton, 27 ; qualified sympathy 
of J. Q. Adams with, 27, 28 ; his 
enemies and adherents in Massa- 
chusetts, 28; his unpopularity 
hampers J. Q. Adams in Senate, 
31,34. 



Adams, John Quincy, birth, 1 ; an- 
cestry, 1 ; named for his great- 
grandfather, 1 ; describes incident 
connected with his naming, 1,2; 
early involved in outbreak of Re- 
volution, 2 ; life near Boston dur- 
ing the siege, 2, 3 ; scanty school- 
ing, 3; describes his reading in 
letter to John Adams, 3, 4 ; ac- 
companies his father to France in 
1778, 4 ; and again to Spain, 4, 5 ; 
tells his mother of intention to 
keep diary while abroad, 5, 6 ; 
begins it in 1779, its subsequent 
success, 6 ; its revelation of his 
character, 7, 10; unchangeable- 
ness of his traits, 7, 8 ; describes 
contemporaries bitterly in diary, 
9, 10 ; shows his own high char- 
acter, 10 ; also his disagreeable 
traits, 11, 12 ; difficulty of con- 
densing his career, 12 ; his school- 
ing in Europe, 13 ; at fourteen 
acts as private secretary to Dana 
on mission to Russia, 13 ; assists 
father in peace negotiations, 13 ; 
his early gravity, maturity, and 
coolness, 14, 15 ; decides not to 
accompany father to England, but 
return home, 15 ; gives his rea- 
son for decision, 15, 16 ; studies 
at Harvard, 17 ; studies law with 
Parsons at Newburyport, 17 ; be- 
gins practice in Boston in 1790, 
17; writes Publicola papers against 
Paine's "Rights of Man," 18; 
writes in papers against Genet, 
18 ; liis restlessness and ambition, 
19. 



312 



INDEX 



Foreign Minister. Appointed 
Minister to the Hague, 19; his 
voyage, 19 ; in Holland at time of 
its capture by French, 20 ; cor- 
dially received by French, 20 ; 
his skill in avoiding entangle- 
ment, 20 ; persuaded by Wash- 
ington to remain, although with- 
out occupation, 21 ; prevented 
from participating in Jay's nego- 
tiations over the treaty, 21 ; has 
dealings with Grenville, 22 ; mar- 
riage with Miss Johnson, 22, 23 ; 
transferred to Portugal, 23 ; ques- 
tion as to propriety of remaining 
minister after his father's elec- 
tion, 23 ; persuaded by Washing- 
ton to remain, 23, 24 ; appointed 
minister to Prussia, 24 ; ratifies 
treaty of commerce, 24 ; travels 
in Europe, 24 ; recalled by his 
father, 25 ; resumes practice of 
law, 25 ; not involved in Federal- 
ist quarrels, 27, 28 ; removed by 
Jefferson from commissionership 
in bankruptcy, 28 ; elected to 
State Senate, 28 ; irritates Feder- 
alists by proposing to allow De- 
mocrats a place in council, 29; 
his entire independence, 29, 30 ; 
elected to United States Senate 
over Pickering, 30. 

United States Senator. His jour- 
ney to Washington, 30, 31 ; un- 
friendly greeting from his father's 
enemies, 31 ; isolation in the Sen- 
ate, 32, 33 ; unfriendly relations 
with Pickering, 32 ; refuses to 
yield to unpopularity, 33, 34 ; es- 
tranges Federalists by his ab- 
sence of partisanship, 34, 35 ; 
votes in favor of Louisiana pur- 
chase, although calling it uncon- 
stitutional, 35, 36 ; condemned by 
New England, 36 ; votes for ac- 
quittal of Chase, 36 ; realizes that 
he is conquering respect, 36, 37 ; 
introduces resolutions condemn- 
ing British seizures of neutrals, 38, 
39; and requesting President to 



insist on reparation, 39 ; his meac 
sure carried by Democrats, 39 ; 
comments on Orders in Council 
and Napoleon's decrees, 42, 46 ; 
refuses to follow New England 
Federalists in advocating submis- 
sion, 47, 48 ; disgusted at Jeffer- 
son's peace policy, 48 ; but sup- 
ports Non-importation Act, 49 ; 
believes in hostile purpose of 
England, 49, 50 ; urges Boston 
Federalists to promise support to 
government during Chesapeake 
affair, 51 ; attends Democratic 
and Federalist meetings to this 
effect, 51, 52 ; read out of party 
by Federalists, 52 ; votes for and 
supports embargo, 53 ; execrated 
in New England, 53 ; his patriotic 
conduct, 53-55 ; his opinion of 
embargo, 55 ; regrets its too long 
continuance, 55, 56 ; advocates in 
vain military and naval prepara- 
tions, 56; refused reelection by 
Massachusetts legislature, 56, 57 ; 
resigns before expiration of term, 
57 ; harshly criticised then and 
since for leaving Federalists, 57, 
58 ; propriety and justice of his 
action, 58, 59 ; led to do so by his 
American feeling, 61, 62 ; absurd- 
ity of charge of oflBce-seeking, 
63 ; disproved by his whole char- 
acter and career, 63, 64 ; his 
courage tested by necessity of 
abandoning friends, 64 ; repels 
advances from Giles, 65 ; state- 
ment of his feelings in his diary, 
65, 66 ; refuses election to Con- 
gress from Democrats, 66 ; sums 
up barrenness of his career in 
Senate, 66-68 ; approached by 
Madison in 1805 with suggestion 
of foreign mission, 68 ; his cool 
reply, 69 ; nominated Minister to 
Russia by Madison, 69 ; appoint- 
ment refused, then confirmed, 69, 
70. 
Minister to R%issia. Peace o) 
Ghent. His voyage, 70 ; his lifa 



INDEX 



313 



at St. Petersburg, 70, 71 ; his buc- 
cess as foreign representative, 71, 
72 ; disgusted by snobbery of 
American travelers, 72 ; declines 
to take part in squabbles for pre- 
cedence, 72, 73 ; hampered by 
meagre salary, 73 ; describes Rus- 
sia during Napoleonic wars, 74 ; 
nominated to act as peace com- 
missioner with England, 75, 76 ; 
describes negotiations in his diary, 
77 ; suggests refusing to meet 
British commissioners at their 
lodgings, 77 ; remarks on arro- 
gance of British, 81 ; vents irri- 
tation upon colleagues, 82, 83 ; be- 
gins drafting communications, but 
abandons duty to Gallatin, 82 ; 
nettled at criticisms of colleagues 
on his drafts, 82, 83 ; quarrels 
with all but GaUatin, 84 ; incom- 
patible with Clay, 84 ; urges 
strong counter-claims, 85 ; thinks 
negotiations certain to fail, 86 ; 
obliged to work for peace as de- 
feated party, 86, 87 ; willing to 
return to status quo, 87 ; disa- 
grees with Clay over fisheries and 
Mississippi navigation, 88 ; deter- 
mined to insist on fisheries, 89, 
90, 92 ; suspects British intend to 
prevent peace, 90 ; controverts 
Goulburn, 91 ; signs treaty, 93 ; 
at Paris during Napoleon's " hun- 
dred days," 98 ; appointed Min- 
ister to England, 98 ; with Clay 
and Gallatin, makes treaty of com- 
merce with England, 98 ; his slight 
duties as minister, 98, 99 ; bored 
by English dinners, 99, 100 ; sen- 
sitive to small income, 100. 
, Secretary of State. Appointed, 
100 ; describes dullness of Wash- 
ington in diary, 102 ; as host, 103 ; 
his habits of life, 104 ; prominent 
candidate for succession to Mon- 
roe, 105 ; intrigued against by 
Crawford, 106; and by Clay and 
Calhoun, 106, 107 ; expects Span- 
ish colonies to gain independence, 



109 ; but maintains cautious pub- 
lic attitude, 109 ; describes Span- 
ish ambassador, 111 ; negotiates 
concerning boundaries of Louisi- 
ana, 111, 112; his position, 112; 
fears opposition from Clay and 
Crawford, 112 ; urged by Monroe 
not to claim too much, 113 ; re- 
jects Enghsh mediation, 114 ; uses 
French Minister as go-between, 
114 ; succeeds in reaching a con- 
clusion, 114, 115; a triumph for 
his diplomacy, 115; chagrined at 
discovery of Spanish land grants, 
116, 117; and at refusal of Span- 
ish government to ratify treaty, 
118 ; urges the seizure of dis- 
puted territory, 118 ; at first indif- 
ferent to Missouri question, 119 ; 
soon appreciates the slavery is- 
sue, 119 ; predicts an attempt to 
dissolve the Union, 119, \\lO; 
sharp comments on slavery, slave- 
holders, and Northern weakness, 
120 ; notes Calhoun's threat of 
alliance of slave States with Eng- 
land, 121 ; thinks abolition im- 
possible without disunion, 121, 
122 ; maintains power of Con 
gress over slavery in Territories, 

122 ; realizes that failure of treaty 
damages his chance for presi- 
dency, 123 ; refuses to reopen 
question with new Spanish envoy, 

123 ; forces ratification of treaty 
with annulment of land grants, 
124 ; his satisfaction with out- 
come of negotiations, 125, 126 ; 
prepares report on weights and 
measures, 126 ; its thoroughness, 
127 ; his pride of country without 
boastfulness in negotiations, 127, 
128 ; declines to consider what 
European courts may think, 128, 
129 ; considers it destiny of Uni- 
ted States to occupy North Amer- 
ica, 129 ; considers annexation of 
Cuba probable, 130 ; alwaj's will- 
ing to encroach within America, 
130, 131 ; tells Russia American 



314 



INDEX 



continents are no longer open for 
colonies, 131 ; fears possibility of 
European attack on Spain's colo- 
nies, 132; vdlling to go to war 
against such an attack, 133 ; 
but, in default of any, advocates 
non-interference, 133, 134 ; refuses 
to interfere in European politics, 
134 ; unwilling to enter league 
to suppress slave trade, 135 ; the 
real author of Monroe doctrine, 
136 ; dealings with Stratford Can- 
ning, 136 ; his reasons for refus- 
ing to join international league to 
put down slave trade, 138, 139 ; 
discusses with him the Astoria 
question, 140-148 ; insists on Can- 
ning's making communications on 
question in writing, 141; stormy 
interviews with him, 142-147 ; re- 
fuses to discuss remarks uttered in 
debate in Congress, 142, 145 ; an- 
gry breach of Canning with, 147, 
148 ; success of his treatment of 
Canning, 148 ; description in his 
diary of presidential intrigues, 
150 fE. ; his censorious frankness, 
150 ; his judgments of men not to 
be followed too closely, 151 ; ac- 
cuses Clay of selfishness in oppo- 
sition to Florida treaty, and in 
urging recognition of Spanish col- 
onies, 151, 152; compares him to 
John Randolph, 153 ; later be- 
comes on better terms, 154 ; his 
deep contempt for Crawford, 154 ; 
gradually suspects him of mali- 
cious practices, 154, 155 ; and of 
sacrificing everything to his ambi- 
tion, 15&, 156 ; sustained by Cal- 
houn in this estimate, 157 ; sup- 
ports Jackson in Cabinet, 158, 
160 ; strains his conscience to 
uphold Jackson's actions, 160, 
161 ; defends him against Can- 
ning, 1G2 ; gives a ball in his 
honor, 162 ; wishes to offer him 
position of Minister to Mexico, 
163 ; favors Jackson for Vice- 
President, 163 ; determines to do 



nothing in his own behalf as can- 
didate, 164 ; no trace of any self- 
seeking in his diary, 164, 165 ; 
holds aloof at all stages, 165 ; 
manages to be polite to all, 166 ; 
yet prepares to be keenly hurt at 
failure, 166 ; considers election a 
test of his career, 167 ; and of 
his personal character in the eyes 
of the people, 167 ; picture of his 
anxiety in his diary, 168 ; re- 
ceives second largest number of 
electoral votes, 169 ; preferred by 
Clay to Jackson, 171 ; elected by 
the House of Representatives, 
173 ; dissatisfied with the result, 
174 ; would have preferred a new 
election if possible, 174 ; congratu- 
lated by Jackson at his inaugura- 
tion, 175 ; wishes oflSce as a token 
of popular approval, 175 ; real- 
izes that this election does not 
signify that, 176. 
President. Freedom from po- 
litical indebtedness, 177 ; his 
cabinet, 177; asks Rufus King to 
accept English mission, 177, 178; 
renominates officials, 178 ; refuses 
to consider any rotation in office, 
179 ; refuses to punish officials 
for opposing his election, 179, 180; 
charged with bargaining for 
Clay's support, 181-183; unable 
to disprove it, 183 ; story spread 
by Jackson, 184 ; after disproof 
of story, continues to be accused 
by Jackson, 187 ; meets strong 
opposition in Congress, 188 ; notes 
combination of Southern mem- 
bers against him, 189 ; sends 
message concerning Panama Con- 
gress, 189 ; accused in Senate and 
House of having transcended his 
powers, 160 ; aided by Webster, 
190 ; reasons for Southern oppo- 
sition to, 191 ; confronted by a 
hostile majority in both Houses, 
192 ; lack of events in his admin- 
istration, 193 ; advocates internal 
improvements, 194 ; declines to 



INDEX 



315 



make a show before people, 194 ; 
his digging at opening of Chesa- 
peake and Ohio Canal, 194, 195 ; 
formation of personal opposition 
to his reelection by Jackson, 195, 

196 ; his only chance of success 
to secure a personal following, 

197 ; refuses to remove officials 
for political reasons, 198 ; fails to 
induce any one except independ- 
ent men to desire his reelection, 
199 ; his position as representa- 
tive of good government not un- 
derstood, 200 ; refuses to modify 
utterances on internal improve- 
ments, to appease Virginia, 201 ; 
refuses to "soothe" South Caro- 
lina, 201 ; alienates people by per- 
sonal stiffness and Puritanism, 
202, 203 ; fails to secure personal 
friends, 203 ; friendly relations 
with Cabinet, 204, 205 ; nominates 
Barbour Minister to England, 205 ; 
fills vacancy with P. B. Porter at 
Cabinet's suggestion, 205 ; refuses 
to remove McLean for double- 
dealing, 206 ; his laboriousness, 
206 ; daily exercise, 206, 207 ; 
threatened with assassination, 
207, 208 ; stoicism luider slanders, 
208 ; refuses to deny accusation 
of being a Mason, 209 ; accused of 
trying to buy support of Webster, 
209 ; other slanders, 209 ; shows 
his wrath in his diary, 210 ; hatred 
of Randolph, 210, 211 ; of Giles, 

211 ; defeated in election of 1828, 

212 ; feels disgraced, 213, 214 ; 
significance of his retirement, 
213 ; the last statesman in presi- 
dency, 213 ; his depression, 214, 
215 ; looks forward gloomily to 
retirement, 215. 

In Retirement. Returns to 
Quincy, 216 ; followed by slan- 
ders of Giles, 216 ; declines to 
enter into controversy with Feder- 
alists over disunion movement of 
1808, 216, 217 ; attacked by the 
Federalists for his refusal, 217, 



218; prepares a crushing reply 
which he does not publish, 218 ; 
dreads idleness, 220 ; unable to 
resume law practice, 220 ; his 
slight property, 221 ; reads Latin 
classics, 221 ; plans biographical 
and historical work, 221 ; writes 
in diary concerning his reading, 
222 ; does not appreciate humor, 
222 ; has difficulty in reading Par- 
adise Lost, 223 ; learns to like 
Milton and tobacco, 223 ; asked if 
willing to be elected to Con- 
gress, 225; replies that he la 
ready to accept the office, 225; 
elected in 1830, 225 ; as candidate 
for governor, withdraws name 
in case of choice by legislature, 
226. 

3Iember of House of Represent- 
atives. His principal task the 
struggle with Southern slave- 
holders, 226 ; gains greater honor 
in this way than hitherto, 226, 
227 ; his diligence and independ- 
ent action in the House, 227 ; 
called " old man eloquent," 227 ; 
not in reality a pleasing or im- 
pressive speaker, 227, 228 ; but 
effective and well-informed, 228 ; 
his excessive pugnacity, 229 ; his 
enemies, 229, 230 ; success as de- 
bater, 230 ; absence of friends or 
followers, 231 ; supported by peo- 
ple in New England, 232 ; declares 
intention to be independent, 233 ; 
greeted with respect, 233 ; on Com- 
mittee on Manufactures, 233 ; 
willing to reduce duties to please 
South, 234; condemns apparent 
surrender of Jackson to South 
Carolina, 234 ; pleased with Jack- 
son's nullification proclamation, 
235 ; wishes to coerce South Caro- 
lina before making concessions, 
235 ; insists on a decision of ques- 
tion of nullification, 235 ; dissat- 
isfied with Jackson's failure to 
push matters, 236 ; in opposition 
to Jackson, 237, 238; Bupporta 



316 



INDEX 



proposal of Jackson to take de- 
termined attitude toward France, 
239 ; wius no gratitude from Jack- 
son, 240 ; receives attempt at re- 
conciliation coolly, 240 ; opposes 
granting of Doctorate of Laws to 
Jackson by Harvard, 241, 242; 
considers Jackson's illness a sham, 
242; presents abolition petitions 
from beginning of term, 243 ; 
does not favor abolition in Dis- 
trict of Columbia, 243 ; always 
disliked slavery and slaveholders, 
243 ; not an agitator or reformer, 
244 ; his qualifications to oppose 
slave power in Congress, 245, 
246 ; hostility in Congress and 
coldness in Boston, 246 ; his sup- 
port in his district, 247 ; and 
among people of North, 247 ; 
continues to present petitions, 
248 ; presents one signed by wo- 
men, 249 ; opposes assertion that 
Congress has no power to inter- 
fere with slavery in a State, 250 ; 
opposes gag rule, 250 ; advocates 
right of petition, 251 ; tries to 
get his protest entered on journal, 
251, 252 ; savage reply to an as- 
sailant, 252 ; receives and pre- 
sents floods of petitions, 252, 253 ; 
single-handed in task, 253 ; urged 
to rash movements by abolition- 
ists, 254 ; his conduct approved 
by constituents, 255 ; resolves to 
continue, although alone, 255 ; 
description in his diary of presen- 
tation of petitions, 255-261 ; con- 
tinues to protest against " gag " 
rule as unconstitutional, 256 ; 
scores Preston for threatening to 
hang abolitionists, 257, 258 ; defies 
the House and says his say, 258, 
259 ; wishes petitions referred to 
a select committee, 259 ; passage 
at arms with chairman of Foreign 
Affairs Committee, 259, 260 ; 
taunts Connor with folly of "gag" 
rule, 261 ; holds that Congress, 
under war power, may abolish 



slavery, 261-263; attacked by 
Southerners, 262, 263 ; cites pre- 
cedents, 263 ; his theory followed 
by Lincoln, 264 ; refers to the 
theory in letter, 265 ; opposes 
annexation of Texas, 265, 266 ; 
his reasons, 266 n. ; presents ab- 
surd petitions, 266 ; presents pe- 
titions asking for his own ex- 
pulsion, 268 ; allows matter to 
drop, 268 ; presents petition from 
slaves and asks opinion of speak- 
er, 269 ; fury of slaveholders 
against, 270 ; resolutions of cen- 
sure against, 271 ; disconcerts op- 
ponents by his cool reply, 272, 
273 ; but receives new attacks 
and resolutions of censure, 274, 
275 ; defended by a few New Eng- 
landers, 276 ; reluctance of South- 
erners to allow him to reply, 276 ; 
his speech, 277-279 ; sarcasms 
upon his enemies, 277, 278 ; pre- 
sents petition asking for his own 
removal from chairmanship of 
Committee on Foreign Affairs, 
280 ; prevented from defending 
himself, 280 ; presents petition 
for dissolution of Union while 
disapproving it, 280, 281 ; resolu- 
tions of censure against, 281, 282; 
attacked by Marshall and Wise, 
283 ; objects to injustice of pre- 
amble, 284 ; defies his enemies 
and scorns mercy, 285 ; bitter re- 
marks on his opponents, 285 ; 
helped by Everett, 286; slight 
outside sympathy for, 286 ; abused 
in newspapers, 286 ; threatened 
with assassination, 286, 287 ; will- 
ing to have matter laid on table, 
287 ; his triumph in the affair, 
288 ; attempt to drive him from 
Foreign Affairs Committee, 289 ; 
refusal of Southerners to serve 
with, 289 ; refuses to notice them, 
289 ; retains respect of House for 
his honesty, 290 ; appealed to, to 
help organize House in 1839, 292 ; 
his bold and successful action. 



INDEX 



317 



293-295 ; praised by Wise, 294 ; 
succeeds in presiding eleven days 
until organization, 294, 295; de- 
precates a resolution of thanks, 
295 ; his occasional despondency 
and loneliness, 295, 296 ; describes 
his enemies, 296 ; tries to act 
justly to all of them, 297 ; casti- 
gates Wise for dueling, 297 ; 
called insane, 297, 298 ; his bitter 
language on opponents in the 
Diary, 298-300 ; low opinion of 
Congress, 299 ; on partisanship, 
299, 300 ; describes his unpopu- 
larity, 301 ; describes all his acts 
as turned to his discredit, 301 ; 
his ill-health, 302, 303, 305 ; chair- 
man of committee on Smithso- 
nian bequest, 303 ; his religious 
and social activity, 304 ; in Ami- 
stad case, 304 ; continues attack 
upon gag rule, 305 ; his final vic- 
tory and exultation, 306 ; struck 
by paralysis, 307 ; greeted on re- 
turn to House, 307 ; his death 
in Capitol, 307, 308 ; estimate of 
character and services, 308. 

Characteristics. General view, 
10-12, 308 ; ambition, 16, 19, 25, 
164-167 ; censoriousness, 9, 12, 
112, 150, 242 ; conscientiousness, 
66, 200, 277, 296 ; coldness, 11, 34, 
37, 165, 230, 240 ; courage, 10, 15, 
33, 54, 58, 64, 113, 208, 252, 253, 
293 ; dignity, 71, 99, 127, 213, 216 ; 
diplomatic ability, 20, 22, 72, 114, 
123, 137-148 ; exercise, love of, 
206, 207; honor, 10, 22, 58, 63, 
166; ill-health, 302, 305; inde- 
pendence, 10, 16, 29, 30, 48, 59, 
127, 133, 246 ; industry, 8, 11, 126, 
206, 227 ; invective, 12, 229, 230, 
246, 252, 277-279, 281, 283-285, 
298-300 ; irritability, 83, 154, 210, 
211, 302 ; knowledge of politics, 
11, 91, 228, 245 ; legal ability, 18 ; 
literary interests, 221-223 ; mel- 
ancholy, 214 ; observation, power 
of, 74, 77, 111 ; oratorical ability, 
227, 228 ; patriotism, 62, 127, 148 ; 



persistence, 11, 25, 34, 114, 123, 
143, 245 ; personal appearance, 
228 ; pessimism, 19, 33, 67, 153, 
272, 296, 299 ; precocity, 17 ; pride, 

166, 167, 201 ; prolixity, 82, 277 ; 
pugnacity, 49, 50, 52, 81, 133, 141, 
160, 228-236, 245, 246, 285 ; Puri- 
tanism, 7, 30, 66, 150, 164, 202 ; 
religious views, 30, 207, 304 ; sen- 
sitiveness, 33, 83, 208, 298 ; sobri- 
ety, 8, 14, 118 ; social habits, 103, 
202, 203 ; suspiciousness, 82, 112, 
138, 151, 296 ; unpopularity, 195, 
202-204, 231, 246, 253, 295, 301, 
307. 

Political Opinions. Appoint- 
ments to office, 178-180, 197-200, 
206 ; cabinet relations with, 204, 
205 ; candidate, attitude of, 164- 

167, 197-206; Chase, impeach- 
ment of, 36 ; Chesapeake affair, 
51 ; Congress, powers over sla- 
very, 122, 250, 261-265; court 
etiquette, 73 ; Cuba, annexation 
of, 130 ; disunion, 119, 122, 281 ; 
election of 1824, 174-176 ; eman- 
cipation, 121 ; embargo, 53, 56 ; 
England, 47, 50, 51, 90, 145, 148; 
English society, 100 ; Federalist 
party, 28, 48, 50, 57, 61 ; fisher- 
ies, 88, 90 ; Florida, 115, 118, 123, 
130 ; France, policy towards, 
239 ; " gag " rule, 250, 251, 256, 
257, 305, 306; Genet, 118; gun- 
boat scheme, 48 ; internal im- 
provements, 194, 201 ; Jackson's 
administration, 237 ; Jackson's 
Florida career, 160, 163 ; Louisi- 
ana, 35, 130 ; Louisiana bound- 
ary, 112, 115; manifest destiny, 
130, 160 ; Mississippi navigation, 
88, 89 ; Missouri Compromise, 
121 ; Monroe doctrine, 130, 131, 
134-136 ; non-importation, 40, 49, 
55; nullification, 234, 235; Ore- 
gon, 140-143 ; Panama Congress, 
189 ; party fidelity, 29, 30, 54, 59, 
62, 233; Republican party, 36, 
65; right of search, 38, 139; 
slaveholders, 243, 257, 260; sla- 



318 



INDEX 



very, 120, 121, 243,255, 304 ; slave 
trade, 135, 138 ; Smithsonian be- 
quest, 303 ; Spanish - American 
republics, 109, 131-133; Texas, 
annexation of, 265, 266 ; treaty of 
Ghent, 77-98; weights and mea- 
sures, 126, 127. 

Adams, Dr. William, on English 
peace commission, 76 ; suggests 
abandonment by United States of 
its citizens in proposed Indian 
Territory, 79 ; irritated at propo- 
sal that English restore posses- 
sion of Moose Island pending ar- 
bitration, 91 ; negotiates treaty of 
commerce, 98. 

Alexander, Emperor of Russia, de- 
sires to exchange ministers with 
United States, 69 ; his courtesy to 
Adams, 70, 71 ; anecdote of Ad- 
ams's conversation with, 73; at- 
tempts to mediate between Eng- 
land and United States, 74, 75 ; 
discussions with Castlereagh, 93 ; 
slander concerning relations with 
Adams, 209, 210. 

Alford, Julius C, wishes to burn 
Adams's petition from slaves, 
270 ; threatens war, 272, 275. 

Ambrister. See Arbuthnot. 

Amistad case, share of Adams in, 
304. 

Anti-Mason movement, used by 
Jacksonians against Adams, 208, 
209 ; connection of Adams with- 
in Massachusetts, 226, 301. 

Arbuthnot and Ambrister, hanged 
by Jackson, 160 ; execution of, 
defended by Adams, 162. 

Atherton, Charles G., bitter re- 
marks of Adams on, 298, 300. 

Austria, rejects England's plan for 
suppression of slave trade, 138. 

Bagot, Sik Chaeles, question of 
his opinion on Oregon question, 
discussed by Canning and Adams, 
142, 143. 

Bank, Jackson's attack on, 240. 

Barbour, James, appointed Secre- 



tary of War, 177 ; desires miasion 

to England, 205. 
Barings, give Adams his commia< 
sion, 98. 

Barnard, D. D., by Adams's advice, 
presents petition for dissolution 
of Union, 288. 

Barron, James, commands Chesa« 
peake when attacked by Leopard, 
45. 

Bayard, James A., appointed peace 
commissioner, 75, 76 ; resents pro- 
posal to meet at lodgings of Eng- 
lish commissioners, 77 ; criticises 
Adams's drafts of documents, 83 ; 
enrages Goulburn, 91 ; accused 
by Adams of trying to injure him, 
296. 

Benton, T. H., on unfavorable be- 
ginning to Adams's administra- 
tion, 188. 

Berkeley, Admiral G. C. , commands 
Leopard, and is promoted for at- 
tacking Chesapeake, 46. 

Berlin decree, 41. 

Beverly, Carter, reports that Jack- 
son has proof of Clay and Adams 
bargain, 184 ; upheld by Jackson, 
185 ; apologizes to Clay, 187. 

Black, Edward J., of Georgia, com- 
ment of Adams on, 300. 

Bonaparte, Napoleon, issues Berlin 
and Milan decrees, 41, 42; seen 
during "hundred days" by Ad- 
ams, 98. 

Brown, James, votes against Span- 
ish treaty through Clay's influ- 
ence, 124. 

Buchanan, James, refuses to sub- 
stantiate Jackson's story of cor- 
rupt offer from Clay in election 
of 1824, 186, 187. 

Burr, Aaron, compared by Adams 
to Van Buren, 193. 

Cabinet, relations of Adams to, 204, 
205; treachery of McLean, 205, 
206. 

Calhoun, J. C, candidate for suc- 
cession to Monroe, 106 ; on South- 



INDEX 



319 



em alliance with England in case 
of dissolution of Union, 121 ; can- 
didacy damaged by Southern ori- 
gin, 149; his opinion of Craw- 
ford, 156 ; displeased at Jackson's 
disregard of instructions, 160 ; 
elected Vice-President, 169 ; irri- 
tation of Adams at his failure 
to suppress Randolph, 211 ; re- 
elected Vice-President, 212 ; ac- 
cused by Adams of plotting to in- 
jure him, 296. 

Canada, desire of Adams for an- 
nexation of, 85, 130. 

Canning, George, seeks acquaint- 
ance with Adams, 99. 

Canning, Stratford, urges American 
submission to mixed tribunals to 
suppress slave trade, 135 ; his ar- 
rogance met by Adams, 136, 137; 
discusses with Adams the sup- 
pression of slave trade, 137-139 ; 
on Adams's superior years, 139; 
high words with Adams over ques- 
tion of an American settlement 
at mouth of Columbia, 140-147 ; 
loses temper at request to put ob- 
jections in writing, 141 ; and at 
persistence of Adams in repeat- 
ing words of previous English 
minister, 142, 143 ; his offer to 
forget subject declined by Ad- 
ams, 144 ; complains of Adams's 
language, 145, 146 ; resents refer- 
ence to Jackson's recall, 146, 147; 
his anger shown later, 147 ; this 
does not affect relations between 
countries, 148. 

Castlereagh, Lord, unwilling at 
first to conclude peace, 93 ; influ- 
enced by attitude of Prussia and 
Russia, advises concessions, 94 ; 
dealings with Adams, 99 ; de- 
scribed by Adams, 99. 

Cavalla, , imprisoned by Jack- 
son, 159, 160 ; seizure defended 
by Adams, 162. 

Chase, Judge Samuel, his acquittal 
voted for by J. Q. Adams, 36. 

tJhesapeake attacked by Leopard, 



45 ; effect upon Adams and Fed- 
eralists, 50, 51. 

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, in- 
cident of Adams's opening of, 
195. 

Choate, Rufus, sympathizes with 
Adams when attacked by resolu- 
tions of censure, 286. 

Civil service, appointments to, under 
Adams, 178-180, 196, 198, 199, 206, 
209 ; under Jackson, 198. 

Clay, Henry, on peace commission, 
76 ; his irascibility, 82, 84 ; criti- 
cises Adams's figurative style in 
documents, 82 ; irritates Adams, 
84 ; his conviviality, 84 ; thinks 
English will recede, 85; then 
thinks English will refuse to ac- 
cept status ante bellum, 87; will- 
ing to sacrifice fisheries to prevent 
English Mississippi navigation, 
88, 89 ; thinks fisheries of little 
value, 89 ; willing to meet Eng- 
lish with defiance, 90 ; threatens 
not to sign treaty, 90, 92 ; aban- 
doned by colleagues on point of im- 
pressment, 92 ; negotiates treaty 
of commerce, 98 ; his gambling 
habits, 103 ; jealous of Adams's 
appointment as Secretary of State, 
106 ; leads opposition to adminis- 
tration, lOG ; wishes to recognize 
independence of Spanish colonies, 
109 ; threatens to oppose treaty 
accepting Sabine as Louisiana 
boundary, 112 ; opposes treaty 
with Spain, 116 ; fails to prevent 
ratification, 124 ; ambitious for 
presidency, 149 ; low motives for 
opposition to administration as 
signed by Adams, 151 ; his hon- 
esty in advocating recognition of 
South American republics, 152; 
compared by Adams to Randolph, 
153 ; becomes reconciled with Ad- 
ams before election, 154 ; de- 
noimces Jackson, 160 ; vote for, 
in 1824, 169 ; able to decide choice 
of President by influence in Con- 
gress, 169 ; at first prefers Sraw- 



320 



INDEX 



ford, 169, 170 ; charged with hav- 
ing offered to support either Jack- 
son or Adams, 170 ; his preference 
for Adams over Jackson, 171 ; ap- 
pointed Secretary of State, 177 ; 
urges removal of Sterret for pro- 
posing an insult to Adams, 179 ; 
calls author of bargain slander a 
liar, 181 ; charge against, repeated 
by Tennessee legislature, 183; 
duel with Randolph, 183 ; chal- 
lenges Jackson to produce evi- 
dence, 185 ; exonerated by Buch- 
anan, 187 ; and by Kremer and 
Beverly, 187; actually receives 
advances from Jackson's friends, 
187, 188 ; opposition to his nomi- 
nation as Secretary of State, 188 ; 
abused by Randolph, 211 ; engi- 
neers compromise with South Car- 
olina, 236 ; accused by Adams of 
trying to injure him, 296. 

Clifford, Nathan, of Maine, con- 
temptuously described by Adams, 
300. 

Clinton, De Witt, his candidacy for 
President in 1824, 149. 

Congress, in election of 1824, 165, 
169-172; influence of Clay in, 
169 ; elects Adams President, 172, 
173 ; investigates bargain story, 
181 ; opposition in, to Adams, 
from the beginning, 188 ; attacks 
Adams's intention to send dele- 
gates to Panama Congress, 190 ; 
opposes Adams throughout ad- 
ministration, 192 ; resolutions de- 
nying its power to interfere with 
slavery debated in House, 249, 
250; position of Adams with re- 
gard to its power to abolish sla- 
very in the States, 250, 261-265 ; 
its degeneracy lamented by Ad- 
ams, 299. 

Connor, John C, taunted by Adams 
in Congress, 261. 

Constitution of United States, in 
relation to Louisiana purchase, 
35 ; prohibits submission of United 
States to mixed foreign tribunals 



for suppressing slave trade, 138 ; 
in connection with election of 
1824, 172 ; held by Adams to for- 
bid "gag" rule, 250, 256, 258; 
held by Adams to justify abolition 
of slavery under war power, 261- 
265 ; in relation to Texas annexa- 
tion, 266. 

Crawford, W. H., his ambitions for 
the presidency, 105, 106, 148 ; in- 
trigues against Adams, 106, 154; 
his action described by Adams, 
112, 113 ; advises modei-ate pol- 
icy to remove foreign prejudices 
against United States, 128 ; con- 
tempt of Adams for, 154 ; accused 
by Adams of all kinds of falsity 
and ambition, 155, 156, 296; his 
real character, 156, 157 ; Calhoun's 
opinion of, 156 ; described by 
MUls, 157 ; a party politician, 
158 ; eager to ruin Jackson, 160 ; 
vote for, in 1824, 169 ; his illness 
causes abandonment by Clay, 170 ; 
receives four votes in House of 
Representatives, 173 ; fills custom- 
houses with supporters, 180. 

Creeks, treaty with, discussed in 
Senate, 33. 

Creole affair, 279. 

Cuba, its annexation expected by 
Adams, 130. 

Cushing, Caleb, defends Adams 
against resolutions of censure, 
276 ; movement to put him in 
Adams's place on Committee on 
Foreign Affairs, 289. 

Dana, Francis, takes Adams as pri- 
vate secretary to Russia, 13. 

Davis, John, accused by Adams of 
trying to injure him, 296. 

Deas, Mr., exchanges ratifications 
of Jay treaty, 21 ; disliked by 
English cabinet, 22. 

Democratic party, organized as op- 
position to Adams, 192 ; managed 
by Van Buren, 192, 193, 195 ; not 
based on principle, but on per- 
sonal feeling, 196; its attacks 



INDEX 



321 



upon Adams, 208-210; its meth- 
ods condemned by Adams, 237. 

Diary, suggested by John Adams, 
5 ; begun, 6 ; its nature and con- 
tent, 7, 8 ; its bitterness, 9, 10 ; 
picture of the author, 10, 11 ; 
quotations from, in Boston, 19; 
during career in Senate, 32, 34 ; 
on damaging party, 66 ; during 
peace negotiations, 77, 82, 83, 
89, 90; during election of 1824, 
150, 151, 164, 168 ; in election of 
1828, 201, 210, 211 ; during anti- 
slavery career, 255, 292, 296, 298- 
300; in last years, 301-303, 305, 
306. 

Piplomatic history, mission of 
Dana to Russia, 13 ; mission of 
Adams to Holland, 19-21 ; to 
Prussia, 24 ; Rose's mission to 
United States, 45, 46 ; mission of 
Adams to Russia, 70-74 ; offer of 
Russia to mediate in war of 1812, 
74, 75; refusal by England, 75; 
peace negotiations, 76-98 (see 
treaty of Ghent) ; commercial ne- 
gotiations with England, 98 ; mis- 
sion of Adams to England, 98- 
100 ; negotiations of Adams with 
Spain, 110-118, 123-125 ; question 
of Sabine River boundary, 112, 
116 ; final agreement, details of 
treaty, acquisition of Florida, 
115 ; and Western outlet to Pa- 
cific, 115 ; dispute over Spanish 
land grants, 116, 117 ; rejection of 
treaty by Spain, 117 ; renewed 
mission of Vivgs, 123 ; ratification 
of treaty, 124 ; independent atti- 
tude of United States under Ad- 
ams, 127, 128 ; Monroe doctrine, 
129-136 ; dealings with Russia 
over Alaska, 130, 131 ; proposal 
of Portugal for an alliance, 133 ; 
dealings of Adams with Greek re- 
volt, 134 ; dealings of Adams with 
Stratford Canning over slave 
trade, 135, 137 ; high words over 
Columbia River settlement, 140- 
147; refusal of Adams to explain 



words uttered in Congress, 142, 
145-147 ; commercial treaties in 
Adams's administration, 194. 

"Doughfaces," attacks of Adams 
upon, 120, 229. 

Dromgoole, George C, remark on 
petition to expel Adams, 268 ; in- 
troduces resolutions of censure on 
Adams, 275 ; ridiculed by Adams, 
277, 278. 

Duncan, Alexander, bitterly de- 
scribed by Adams, 299. 

Eaton, Senator J.H., leads Canning 
to suspect American plan to col- 
onize Oregon, 140. 

Eaton, Mrs., her influence in Jack- 
son's administration, 237. 

Election of 1824, candidates, 148, 
149 ; Adams's opinion of them, 
151-163 ; choice simply between 
persons, not principles, 163; Ad- 
ams refuses to canvass for him- 
self, 164, 165 ; electoral college 
votes for four candidates, 168, 

169 ; influence of Clay in House 
proves decisive factor, 169, 170 ; 
Crawford discarded, 170 ; the 
Clay- Adams bargain story started, 

170 ; claims of Jackson men, 171 ; 
difficulty of discovering popular 
vote, 172, 173 ; choice of Adams, 
173, 174 ; subsequent history of 
bargain story, 180-188. 

Election of 1828, question of prin- 
ciple veiled by personality of can- 
didates, 196, 197, 200; choice of 
Jackson, 212 ; its significance, 
213, 214. 

Embargo, proposed by Jefferson, 
52 ; supported by Adams, 53 ; op- 
posed by Federalists, 53 ; pre- 
ferred by Adams to submission, 
54, 55 ; its effects, 55 ; its repeal 
urged by Adams, 55, 56. 

England, ratifies Jay treaty, 21 ; 
tries to induce Adams to negotiate 
instead of Deas, 22 ; its commer- 
cial policy toward United States, 
37, 38; its right of search pro- 



322 



INDEX 



tested against by Adams, 39 ; Non- 
importation Act adopted against, 
40 ; proclaims blockade, 41 ; is- 
sues Orders in Council, 41, 42 ; 
its policy of impressment, 43, 44 ; 
refuses compensation for Chesa- 
peake affair and promotes Berke- 
ley, 45 ; its policy understood by 
Adams, 49, 50 ; embargo against, 
51-55 ; refuses Russia's offer to 
mediate in war of 1812, 75 ; wins 
victories, 76 ; willing to treat di- 
rectly, 76 ; appoints commission- 
ers, 76 ; demands great conces- 
sions, 78, 79 ; ready, if necessary, 
to continue war, 86 ; alters policy 
and concludes treaty, 93, 94 ; dis- 
satisfied with treaty, 97 ; commer- 
cial treaty with, 98 ; mission of 
Adams to, 98-100 ; social life of 
Adams in, 99, 100 ; its offer to 
mediate between United States 
and Spain rejected, 114 ; hopes 
no violent action will be taken 
against Spain, 118 ; endeavors to 
induce United States to join in 
suppressing slave trade, 135, 137 ; 
its sincerity suspected by Adams, 
138; its claim to right of search 
causes refusal of request, 138, 
139 ; its claims to Oregon dis- 
cussed by Canning and Adams, 
140, 142, 143, 145 ; Adams's opin- 
ion of its territorial claims, 145. 

Era of good feeling, 104 ; character- 
ised by personal rivalries, 105 ; 
question of presidential succes- 
sion, 105, 106 ; intrigues, 106, 107, 
148. 

Evans, George, defends Adams from 
resolutions of censure, 276. 

Everett, Edward, his address to 
Jackson condemned as fulsome by 
Adams, 242. 

Everett, Horace, defends Adams 
against resolutions of censure, 
283, 286. 

Everett, Mr., told by Adams of de- 
termination to do nothing to se- 
cure election, 164. 



Federalist party, defeated by Jef- 
ferson, 25, 26 ; dissensions in, be- 
tween John Adams and Hamilton, 
26, 27 ; J. Q. Adams a member of, 
28 ; elects Adams to State Senate, 
28 ; irritated by his independ- 
ence, 29 ; elects him United States 
senator, 30 ; antipathy of, in Sen- 
ate, toward son of John Adams, 
31 ; opposes Louisiana purchase, 
35 ; condemns Adams for favoring 
Louisiana, 36 ; supports English 
policy, 38 ; angered against Jeffer- 
son for not submitting to English 
aggression, 39, 40, 53 ; opposes 
Non-importation Act, 40 ; urged by 
Adams to resent Chesapeake af- 
fair, 51 ; does so, but condemns 
Adams for participating m Repub- 
lican meeting, 52 ; its outburst of 
fury at Adams for supporting 
embargo, 53, 54 ; refuses to re- 
elect him, 57 ; discussion of its 
part in United States history, 
59-62; its success in organiza- 
tion, 59, 60 ; supported by Adama 
as long as it remains sound, 61 ; 
takes false position after 1807, 62 ; 
disappears, 104, 105; thirteen 
members demand evidence of Ad- 
ams's statement concerning plans 
for disunion, 216 ; their rejoinder 
to his reply, 217, 218 ; proved to 
have planned disunion by Ad- 
ams's unpublished pamphlet, 218, 
219. 

Fisheries, intention of English to 
ignore, in treaty of Ghent, 80, 88 ; 
disputes over, between Adama 
and Clay, 88-90; finally omitted 
from treaty, 92, 94 ; later negoti- 
ations over, 99. 

Florida, question of its acquisition, 
110, 111 ; acquired by treaty, 
115 ; its seizure advocated by 
Adams against Monroe, 118, J23, 
treaty concerning, opposed by 
Clay, 151 ; illegal actions of Jack- 
son in, 159. 

Foreign Affairs, Committee on, pe» 



INDEX 



323 



tition for Adams's removal from, 
280 ; refusal of Southern mem- 
bers to serve on, with Adams, 
289. 

France, conquers Holland, 20 ; at- 
titude of John Adams toward, 26 ; 
replies to English blockade by 
Berlin and MUan decrees, 41, 42 ; 
unable to damage American ship- 
ping as much as England, 46, 47; 
war with Russia, 74 ; hopes no 
violent action will be taken 
against Spain, 118 ; rejects Eng- 
land's plan for suppression of 
slave trade, 138 ; its slowness in 
paying debt causes Jackson to 
break off diplomatic relations, 
238. 

Franklin, Benjamin, negotiates 
treaty of peace, 13. 

" Gag " rule, adopted over Adams's 
protest, 250, 251 ; effort of Adams 
to get his protest on journal, 251, 
252; further protests of Adams 
against, 256, 258, 305 ; difficulties 
in enforcing, 2G0 ; dwindling ma- 
jorities for, 305 ; repealed on Ad- 
ams's motion, 306. 

Gallatin, Albert, appointed peace 
commissioner, 75 ; his appoint- 
ment rejected by Senate, 75 ; re- 
appointed, 76 ; moderates resent- 
ment of colleagues at English pre- 
tensions, 77, 82 ; acts as peace- 
maker in conference, 82 ; sup- 
plants Adams in drafting docu- 
ments, 82 ; on good terms with 
Adams, 84 ; negotiates treaty of 
commerce, 98. 

Gambier, Lord, on English peace 
commission, 76 ; laments Adams's 
intention to return to St. Peters- 
burg, 86 ; interposes to calm a 
quarrel, 91 ; negotiates treaty of 
commerce, 98. 

Garland, Hugh A., attempts to se- 
cure organization of House of Re- 
presentatives without taking in 
contested seats, 290 ; intends to 



give House to Democrats, 291 ; 
refuses to put any question until 
House is organized, 291, 292 ; pre- 
vents organization, 292 ; pushed 
aside by Adams, 293. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, adopts 
Adams's theory of power of Con- 
gress over slavery, 264. 

Genet, E. C, his course attacked 
by Adams in papers, 18. 

Gerry, Elbridge, notifies John Ad- 
ams of appointment as Minister 
to England, 14. 

Giddings, Joshua R., his position on 
power of Congress over slavery 
not indorsed by Adams, 263. 

Giles, W. B., attempts to win Ad- 
ams to support Jefferson, 65 ; 
abuses Adams, 211, 296 ; his mem- 
ory preserved solely by his slan- 
ders, 212 ; circulates slanders in 
New England against Adams, 216. 

Gilmer, Thomas W., offers resolu- 
tion of censure on Adams for 
presenting petition to dissolve 
the Union, 281 ; denies Adams's 
charge of imitating Wise, 281, 
282. 

Glascock, Thomas, moves that anti- 
slavery petition be not received, 
248. 

Goulburn, Henry, on English peace 
commission, 76 ; thinks war must 
continue, 86 ; loses temper with 
Bayard and Adams, 91 ; negotiates 
treaty of commerce, 98. 

Grantland, Seaton, wishes to pun- 
ish Adams for presenting petition 
from slaves, 270. 

Greece, revolt of, refusal of Adams 
to commit United States to inter- 
ference, 134. 

Gregory, Sherlock S., his eccentric 
anti-slavery petition, 256. 

Grenville, Lord, dealings of Adams 
with, in 1795, 22. 

Gunboat scheme, despised by Ad- 
ams, 48. 

Habersham, Richabd W., alleges 



324 



INDEX 



petition for removal of Adams to 
be a hoax, 280. 

Hamilton, Alexander, real leader of 
Federalist party during John Ad- 
ams's administration, 27; his feud 
with Adams, 27; his influence in 
Massachusetts, 28, 30. 

Harvard College, studies of John 
Quincy Adams in, 17; its proposal 
to confer degree upon Jackson op- 
posed by Adams, 241 ; confers the 
degree, 241, 242. 

Haynes, Charles E., moves rejection 
of Adams's petition from slaves, 
270, 275 ; moves to make censure 
of Adams severe, 271. 

Hayti, its possible representation at 
Panama Congress causes South 
to advocate refusal to send dele- 
gates, 191 ; petitions for recogni- 
tion of, 259. 

Holland, mission of Adams to, 20 ; 
conquered by France, 20 ; made 
into " Batavian Reptiblic," 20 ; 
agrees to suppress slave trade, 138. 

Holy Alliance, fear of its attempt- 
ing to reconquer Spanish colonies, 
132, 134, 136. 

House of Representatives, Adams's 
career in, 225-308 ; election of Ad- 
ams to, 225 ; his labors in commit- 
tee and other work of, 227; solita- 
riness of Adams in, 231 ; his position 
in, with regard to tariff of 1833, 235; 
debate in, over Jackson's policy 
to France, 239 ; anti-slavery peti- 
tions presented in, at first without 
remark, 243, 248 ; debates plans 
to prevent their reception, 248- 
250; adopts "gag" rule against 
Adams's protest, 251 ; attempts 
of Adams to infringe its rule, 257, 
258 ; debates power to abolish sla- 
very, 262 ; debates proposed cen- 
sure of Adams for presenting a 
petition from slaves, 269-279 ; re- 
solves that slaves do not possess 
right of petition, 279 ; Adams's 
speech in reply, 277-279; at- 
tempts to censure Adams for pre- 



senting petition for dissolution of 
Union, 280-288 ; lays subject on 
table, 288 ; does not resent a 
second disunion petition, 288 ; re- 
fusal of Garland to organize ac- 
cording to custom, in 1839, 290- 
292 ; appeals to Adams, 292 ; or- 
ganized by his leadership, 293- 
295 ; pays compliment to Adams 
on his return after illness, 307; 
death of Adams in, 307, 308. 

Hubbard, David, comment of Adams 
on, 300. 

Hunter, R. M. T., elected Speaker 
of House, 295. 

Impressment, description of its ex- 
ercise by England and effects 
upon United States, 43-45 ; dif- 
ficulty of reclaiming impressed 
Americans, 44, 45 ; the Chesa- 
peake affair, 45, 46 ; not men- 
tioned in treaty of Ghent, 92, 95 ; 
later negotiations over, 99. 

Indians, propositions concerning, in 
peace negotiations, 78 ; dissen- 
sions over, between American 
commissioners, 90 ; article con- 
cerning, 94. 

Internal improvements, Adams's ad- 
vocacy of, 194, 201. 

Jackson, Andrew, his view of Ad- 
ams's office-seeking, 63 ; wins bat- 
tle of New Orleans, 96, 97 ; his 
outrages in Spanish territory, 110 ; 
enrages Spain, 111 ; approves Ad- 
ams's Spanish treaty, later con- 
demns it, 125 ; becomes candi- 
date for presidency in 1824, 149 ; 
his Indian wars in Florida, 158, 
159 ; hangs Arbuthnot and Am- 
brister, 159 ; captures Pensacola, 
159 ; difficulty of praising or 
blaming him, 159, 160 ; condemned 
by President and Cabinet, 160 ; 
and by Clay, 160 ; defended by 
Adams, 160-162 ; ball in his honor 
given by Adams, 162 ; supported 
for Minister to Mexico and for 



INDEX 



325 



Vice-President by Adams, 1G3 ; on 
good terms with Adams up to 
election, 163 ; receives largest 
electoral vote in 1824, 109; said 
to have refused offer of Clay to 
bargain for support, 170 ; impos- 
sibility of Clay's supporting him, 
171 ; popular argument for his 
choice, 171, 172 ; absurdity of 
claim of popular will in favor of, 
172, 173 ; vote for, in House of 
Representatives, 174 ; enraged at 
defeat, 174 ; yet greets Adams 
at inauguration, 175 ; nominated 
for President by Tennessee legis- 
lature, 181 ; spreads tale of Clay 
and Adams's bargain, 184 ; de- 
clares he has proof, 184, 185; tells 
story of offer from Clay, 185 ; 
calls upon Buchanan for testi- 
mony, 186 ; his statements disa- 
vowed by Buchanan, 186, 187 ; 
continues to repeat story, 187 ; 
his candidacy for 1828 purely on 
personal grounds, 195-197, 200 ; 
advantages all on his side, 197 ; 
originator of spoils system, 198 ; 
his position as advocate of un- 
sound government not under- 
stood in 1828, 200 ; secretly aided 
by McLean, 205, 206 ; rewards 
him by a judgeship, 206 ; elected 
President in 1828, 212 ; begins a 
new era, 213, 214 ; his message of 
1832 condemned by Adams, 234 ; 
his proclamation against nulli- 
fication upheld by Adams, 235 ; 
ultimately yields to South Caro- 
lina, 236 ; his administration con- 
demned by Adams, 237 ; its char- 
acter, 237 ; recommends vigorous 
action against France, 238 ; sup- 
ported by Adams in House, 239 ; 
continues to hate Adams, 239, 

240 ; futile attempt of Johnson to 
reconcile him with Adams, 240, 

241 ; granted degree of Doctor of 
Laws by Harvard, 241, 242; sus- 
pected by Adams of feigning ill- 
ness for effect, 242. 



Jackson, F. J., his recall referred 
to in conversation between Can- 
ning and Adams, 146. 

Jarvis, Leonard, introduces resolu- 
tion that House will not enter- 
tain abolition petitions, 248. 

Jay treaty, ratified, 21. 

Jefferson, Thomas, negotiates trea- 
ties of commerce, 13 ; repubhshea 
Paine's "Rights of Man," 18; 
his inauguration avoided by John 
Adams, 26 ; removes J. Q. Ad- 
ams from position of commis- 
sioner in bankruptcy, 28 ; at- 
tempts to explain apparent malice, 
28 ; Adams's view of his attacks 
on Pickering and Chase, 36 ; ap- 
proves Non-importation Act, 40 ; 
ineflBcient in war-time, 48, 54 ; 
advocates embargo, 54 ; not re- 
conciled with J. Q. Adams in 
spite of latter' s support, 65; un- 
conciliatory reply of Adams to, 
when offered a mission, 69 ; his 
desire to make Louisiana a State 
opposed by Adams, 130 ; begins 
political use of oflBces to secure 
reelection, 198 ; said to have been 
warned by Adams of Federalist 
disunion plots, 216. 

Johnson, Joshua, father-in-law of 
Adams, 22. 

Johnson, Louisa Catherine, marries 
Adams, 22, 23 ; in Washington 
society, 103. 

Johnson, Richard M., led by Clay 
to oppose Spanish treaty, 124 ; 
endeavors to reconcile Adams and 
Jackson, 240 ; his probable mo- 
tives, 240, 

Johnson, Thomas, Governor, con- 
nected by marriage with Adams, 
22. 

King, Rufus, description of Ad- 
ams's offer of English mission to, 
177,178. 

Kremer, George, originates bargain 
slander against Clay and Adams, 
171, 180 ; refuses to testify before 



326 



INDEX 



House Committee, 181 ; writes a 
retraction and apology, 187. 

Leopard. See Chesapeake. 

Lewis, Dixon H., urges punishing 
Adams for offering petition from 
slaves, 270; wishes Southern 
members to go home, 272. 

Lincoln, Solomon, letter of Adams 
to, on power of Congress over 
slavery, 265. 

Lincoln, Levi, defends Adams 
against resolution of censure, 
276. 

Liverpool, Lord, his anxiety to con- 
clude peace, 93. 

Livingston, Edward, ordered by 
Jackson to demand passports from 
France, 238. 

Lloyd, James, Jr., chosen Senator 
in Adams's place, 57. 

Louisiana, acquisition opposed by 
Federalist party, 35 ; supported 
by Adams, although, in his eyes, 
unconstitutional, 35 ; negotiations 
with Spain concerning its boun- 
dary, 110, 112, 114-116 ; proposed 
boundary at Sabine opposed by 
Clay, 112, 116 ; boundaries agreed 
upon in treaty, 115 ; dispute over 
Spanish land grants in, 116, 117, 
12-1 ; tlie boundary later attacked, 
but, at the time of treaty, ap- 
proved, 125. 

Lowell, John, justifies action of 
Leopard in attacking Chesapeake, 
50. 

McLean, J. T., professes devotion 
to Adams and aids Jackson, 205, 
206 ; rewarded by Jackson with a 
judgeship, 206. 

Madison, James, as Secretary of 
State, favors giving Adams a for- 
eign mission, 68 ; as President, 
appoints him Minister to Russia, 
69, 70. 

Manifest destiny, upheld by Adams, 
130. 

Hann, Abijah, Jr., of New York, 



attacks Adams in Congress, 273, 
274. 

" Marcellus " papers, 18. 

Manufactures, Committee on, Ad- 
ams a member of, 233. 

Marshall, Thomas F., attacks Ad- 
ams for advocating power of Con- 
gress over slavery, 263 ; offers re- 
solution of censure on Adams for 
presenting disunion petition, 282, 
283. 

Markley, Philip S., mentioned by 
Buchanan in Clay- Adams bargain 
story, 186. 

Mason, S. T., killed in a duel, 103, 
104. 

Massachusetts, upper classes in, be- 
long to Federalist party, 28 ; le- 
gislature of, sends Adams to Uni- 
ted States Senate, 30 ; refuses to 
reelect him, 56, 57 ; condemns 
embargo, 57 ; lasting bitterness 
in, against Adams, for his change 
of party, 58, 216-218 ; anti-Mason 
movement in, 226, 301 ; educated 
society in, disapproves of Ad- 
ams's anti-slavery position, 246; 
farmers support him, 247, 255. 

Milan decree issued, 42. 

Mills, E. H., describes Washington 
city, 101 ; describes Mr. and Mrs. 
Adams, 103 ; describes Crawford, 
157 ; describes Adams's ball in 
honor of Jackson, 162 ; on rea- 
sons for Adams's personal un- 
popularity, 203 n. 

Milton, Adams's opinion of, 223. 

Mississippi navigation, demand of 
English for, in treaty of Ghent, 
80, 88; disputes over, between 
Clay and Adams, 88 ; finally 
omitted from treaty, 92, 94. 

Missouri, admission of, 119. 

Monroe, James, appoints Adams- 
Secretary of State, 100 ; social 
life of, 102 ; character of his ad- 
ministration, 104, 133 ; enmity of 
Clay toward, 106; anxious for 
treaty with Spain, dreads Ad- 
ams's obstinacy, 113; refuses to 



INDEX 



327 



seize Florida, 118 ; his connection 
with "Monroe doctrine," 129, 
131 ; anticipated by Adams, 131 ; 
not the originator of modern idea 
of non-interference, 136 ; alarmed 
at Jackson's conduct in Florida, 
160. 

Monroe doctrine, enlarged by mod- 
ern interpretation, 129 ; outlined 
by Adams in reply to Russia, 131 ; 
stated by Monroe, 131 ; its prin- 
ciples followed out by Adams, 
132-148. 

Morgan, William, his alleged assas- 
sination by Masons, 208. 

Neutrality Act, passed to prevent 
privateering against Spain, 108. 

Neuville, Hyde de, social doings of, 
in Washington, 102, 103 ; aids Ad- 
ams in Spanish treaty, 114 ; re- 
mark of Adams to, on Onis's 
policy, 117. 

New England, policy of merchants 
of, in advocating submission to 
England, 47, 48 ; condemns em- 
bargo, 52 ; supports Adams for 
President in 1824, 169 ; applauds 
his anti-slavery course, 232. 

New Jersey, disputed election in, 
prevents organization of House 
of Representatives, 290-292. 

New Orleans, battle of, 96 ; celebra- 
tions over, 96, 97. 

New York, supports Adams in 1824, 
169 ; chooses electors by legisla- 
ture, 173. 

Niles's "Weekly Register," cele- 
brates battle of New Orleans, 96, 
97. 

Non-importation, act for, passed, 
40 ; opposed by Federalists, sup- 
ported by Adams, 40, 49 ; its sub- 
stitution for embargo urged by 
Adams, 56. 

Nullification, opinion of Adams on, 
235, 236. 

Obseevatoey, National, desire of 
Adams to found, 304. 



Onis, Don, Spanish Minister, his 
character described by Adams, 
111 ; complains to Adams of 
folly of home government. 111, 
112; expostulations of De Neu- 
ville with, 114 ; forced to sdeld to 
Adams's terms, 114, 115 ; tries to 
evade explanation of royal land 
grants, 116, 117 ; angered at 
Jackson's doings, 161. 

Orders in Council, 41, 42. 

Oregon question, debated between 
Adams and Canning, 140-145. 

Otis, Harrison Gray, accused by 
Adams of trying to injure him, 
296. 

Paine, Thomas, his "Rights of 
Man " attacked by Adams, 18. 

Panama Congress, recommendation 
of Adams to send commissioners 
to, 189 ; question debated in Con- 
gress, 189, 190; reasons why 
South objected, 191. 

Parsons, Theophilus, studies of J. 
Q. Adams in his law office, 17 ; 
accused by Adams of trying to 
injure him, 296. 

Patton, John Mercer, urges South- 
ern members to be cautious in 
matter of censuring Adams, 272. 

Petitions, anti-slavery, presented in 
House by Adams, 243, 248, 249, 
252, 256-258, 260, 288; others 
presented, 267, 269 ; for dissolu- 
tion of Union, 281, 288 (see 
"Gag "rule). 

Pichegru, Charles, French General, 
conquers Netherlands, 20. 

Pickering, Timothy, defeated by 
J. Q. Adams for Senator, 30 ; his 
relations with Adams in Senate, 
32 ; votes against Adams's ap- 
pointment as Minister to Russia, 
69, 70 ; accused by Adams of try- 
ing to injure him, 296. 

Pickering, John, Adams's view of 
his impeachment, 36. 

Pinckney, Thomas, Minister to Eng« 
land, 22. 



328 



INDEX 



Pinckney, Henry Laurens, reports 
on powers of Congress with re- 
gard to slavery, 249 ; attacks Ad- 
ams for presenting petition from 
slaves, 274. 

Plumer, William, supports Adams 
in Senate, C8. 

Porter, Peter B., appointed Secre- 
tary of War at desire of Cabinet, 
205. 

Portugal, proposed mission of 
Adams to, 23, 24 ; proposes an 
alliance with United States, 133, 
134 ; agrees to suppress slave 
trade, 138. 

Preston, William C, threatens to 
hang abolitionists, 258. 

Privateers in Monroe's administra- 
tion, 108. 

Prussia, mission of Adams to, 24 ; 
treaty of commerce with, 24 ; re- 
jects English plan for suppression 
of slave trade, 138. 

" Publicola " papers, 18. 

Puritan traits in Adams, 7, 30; in 
Adams's constituents, 247. 

QuiNCY, John, great-grandfather of 
Adams, anecdote as to how 
Adams was named after him, 
1,2. 

Quincy, Josiah, refusal of Adams to 
run against for Congress, 66. 

Randolph, John, his enmity com- 
pared by Adams to that of Clay, 
153; teller in election of 1824, 
173; on " Blifil and Black 
George," 183; duel with Clay, 
183; hatred of Adams for, 210, 
211 ; his abuse of Adams, 211, 
296. 

Republican party, elects Jefferson, 
25 ; fair-minded proposal of Ad- 
ams concerning its representa- 
tion on council in Massachusetts, 
29 ; thought by Adams to be 
planning attack on judiciary, 36 ; 
favors France, 38 ; anticipates 
Federalists of Boston in condemn- 



ing Chesapeake affair, 51 ; en- 
deavors to win over Adams, 65, 
G8 ; wishes to send him to Con- 
gress, 66. 

Rhett, Robert Barnwell, offers re- 
solution that Williams be chair- 
man, substitutes name of Adams, 
293 ; conducts him to chair, 293. 

Robertson, John, opposes resolu- 
tions of censure, but condemns 
Adams, 276. 

Romanzoflf, Count, his friendliness 
with Adams, 71 ; suggests Rus- 
sian mediation in war of 1812, 
74. 

Rose, G. H., his fruitless mission to 
America after Chesapeake affair, 
45. 

Rush, Dr. Benjamin, approaches 
Adams on subject of foreign mis- 
sion, 68. 

Rush, Richard, appointed Secretary 
of Treasury, 177 ; wishes appoint- 
ment as minister to England, 
205. 

Russell, Jonathan, on peace com- 
mission, 76 ; criticises Adams's 
drafts of documents, 82 ; accused 
by Adams of trying to injure 
him, 296 ; attitude of Adams to- 
ward, 297. 

Russia, mission of Dana to, 13 ; 
mission of Adams to, 70-74 ; life 
in, 71, 73, 74 ; its friendship for 
United States, 72 ; war with 
France, 74 ; offers to mediate 
between England and United 
States, 74 ; its offer declined, 75 ; 
dispute with, over Alaska, 130 ; 
statement of Adams to, on Mon- 
roe doctrine, 131 ; rejects Eng- 
lish plan for suppression of slave 
trade, 138. 

Sectionalism, in Louisiana pur- 
chase, 35 ; in connection with 
embargo, 52, 53 ; in connection 
with Missouri question, 122, 123 ; 
I appears in parties during Adams's 
j administration, 188, 189 ; gprovirtli 



INDEX 



329 



of, during debate over Texas an- 
nexation, 243. 

Senate of the United States, elec- 
tion of Adams to, 30 ; unpopular- 
ity of Adams in, 31-33 ; rejects all 
his proposals, 31 , 32 ; debates ac- 
quisition of Louisiana, 35 ; im- 
peaches Chase, 3G; increased 
influence of Adams in, 36, 37 ; 
adopts Adams's resolutions de- 
manding indemnity for British 
seizures, 39 ; his career in, re- 
viewed by Adams, 66-G8 ; refuses, 
then accepts, Adams's nomination 
as Minister to Russia, G9, 70 ; re- 
jects Gallatin's nomination as 
peace commissioner, 75. 

Seward, W. H., on John Adams's 
recall of J. Q. Adams before end 
of term, 25 ; on Adams's dissat- 
isfaction with election of 1824, 
174. 

Shakespeare, Adams's opinion of, 
222. 

Slaveholders in Congress, their ha- 
tred of Adams, 229, 24G ; attacked 
by Adams, 258, 259 ; outwitted 
by Adams, 2G1, 273 ; condemn 
Adams for arguing possibility of 
abolition under war power, 2G2, 
2G4 ; enraged at Adams's having 
a petition from slaves, 2G9, 270 ; 
move to censure him, 271 ; dis- 
comfited by discovery of nature 
of petition, 273 ; renew attempt 
to censure, 274, 275 ; abandon it, 
27G, 279; bitterly attacked by 
Adams in his defense, 277-279 ; 
try to censure Adams for present- 
ing disunion petition, 281-283 ; 
defied by Adams, 283-285 ; threat- 
en Adams with assassination, 286, 
287; abandon attempt, 287, 288; 
refuse to serve on committee with 
Adams, 289 ; respect his courage, 
290 ; applaud his energy in carry- 
ing out organization of House, 293, 
294. 

Slavery, strengthened by Louisi- 
ana purchase, 35 ; made a politi- 



cal issue by Missouri question, 
119 ; opinions of Adams concern- 
ing, 119-121 ; extension of, op- 
posed by Adams, 121 ; formation 
of a party devoted to, 188-192 ; 
attack upon, hastened by Texas 
question, 243 ; Adams's part in 
war against, 244-248 ; right of 
Congress to abolish, under war 
power, 250, 261-265. 

Slaves, English seizures of, during 
war of 1812, negotiations concern- 
ing, 99. 

Slave trade, refusal of Adams to 
submit United States to mixed 
tribunals for its repression, 135- 
137 ; English proposal for com- 
bined effort, 137, 138. 

Smith, William, accuses Adams of 
monomania, 280. 

Smithsonian bequest, connection of 
Adams with, 303. 

Soutli, tlie, Calhoun its leader in 
1824, 149 ; does not support Ad- 
ams for President, 169, 188; be- 
gins to form a new slavery party 
in Adams's administration, 188, 
189 ; opposes Panama Congress 
because of Hayti's share in it, 
191. 

Southard, Samuel L., reappointed 
Secretary of Navy, 177. 

South Carolina, refusal of Adams 
to placate, in 1828, 201 ; protests 
against tariff, 233 ; its punish- 
ment for nullification desired by 
Adams, 234-237 ; Jackson's vacil- 
lation toward, condemned by Ad- 
ams, 234-236 ; gains its point from 
Clay, 236. 

Spain, danger of war with, in Mon- 
roe's administration, 108 ; ques- 
tion of revolted colonies, 108, 109 ; 
disputes over Louisiana boundary 
and Florida, 109, 110 ; sends Onia 
to negotiate. 111 ; its policy ham- 
pers Onis, 111, 112; negotiations, 
113-116 ; repudiates Onis's treaty, 
117 ; accepts original treaty, 124 ; 
agrees to suppress slave trade, 



330 



INDEX 



138; angered at Jackson's ex- 
cesses in Florida, 161. 

Spanish - American republics, wish 
aid from United States, 108 ; 
frowned down by European coun- 
tries, 108; sympathy for, in Uni- 
ted States, 108, 109; recognition 
urged by Clay, 109, 152 ; recog- 
nized gradually, 132 : danger of 
attempt to reconquer by Holy Al- 
liance, 132, 133 ; protected by Mon- 
roe doctrine, 131-134. 

Sterret, , his removal urged by 

Clay for planning an insult to 
Adams, 179 ; not removed by Ad- 
ams, ISO. 

Tariff, Adams's views upon, 234 ; 
compromise tariff of 1833, consid- 
ered by Adams a surrender, 235. 

Tennessee, renominates Jackson for 
President, 181 ; repeats bargain 
story, 183. 

Texas, proposal to annex, arouses 
Northern opposition to slavery, 
243; indignation of Adams at, 
265, 266; held by Adams to be 
unconstitutional, 206. 

Thaxter, , teacher of Adams, 3. 

Thompson, Waddy, sarcastic re- 
mark of, 259 ; neglects to present 
petition for Adams's expulsion, 
268 ; introduces resolution of cen- 
sure upon Adams, 271 ; threatens 
Adams with criminal proceedings, 
271 ; presents new resolutions, 
274 ; scored by Adams, 277. 

Tompkins, Daniel D., candidate for 
President in 1824, 149. 

Times, London, condemns treaty of 
Ghent, 97. 

Tracy, Uriah, supports Adams in 
Senate, 68. 

Treaty of Ghent, meeting of com- 
missioners, 76 ; irritation during 
negotiations, 77 ; preliminary con- 
flict as to place of meeting, 77, 
78 ; large demands of England 
for cession of territory and other 
advantages, 78, 79; discussion 



over proposed belt of neutral 
Indian territory, 79 ; and of de- 
mand for Mississippi navigation, 
80 ; complaints by Americans of 
manners of English, 80-82 ; bick- 
erings among Americans, 81-84 ; 
diflSculties in drafting documents, 
82, 83 ; social intercourse between 
commissioners, 85, 92 ; expected 
failure of negotiations, 86 ; stahis 
ante bellum proposed by Adams, 
87 ; sanctioned by United States, 
87 ; dissensions among commis- 
sioners over Mississippi naviga- 
tion and fisheries, 88-90 ; over 
Moose Island, 91 ; English offer 
to omit fisheries and Mississippi, 
92 ; abandonment of impressment 
article by Americans, 92 ; pecul- 
iarities of negotiation, 93 ; altera- 
tion of English policy, 93 ; terms 
of treaty, 94 ; a success for Amer- 
icans, 95, 96 ; rejoicings over, in 
America, 96 ; condemned in Eng- 
land, 97. 

Trimble, Cary A., of Ohio, opposes 
Spanish treaty, 124. 

Tuyl, Baron, discussion of Adams 
with, concerning Alaska, 131. 

Van BtJBEN, Maetin, becomes man- 
ager of Jackson's followers, 192 ; 
compared by Adams to Burr, 193. 

Vanderpoel, Aaron, tries to prevent 
Adams from replying to resolu- 
tions of censure by previous ques- 
tion, 276. 

Virginia, refusal of Adams to pla- 
cate, in election of 1828, 201. 

Viv^s, General, supplants Onis, 123 ; 
Adams's stubborn attitude to- 
ward, 123, 124 ; forced to yield, 
124. 

Von Hoist, H. C, calls Adams last 
of the statesmen to be President, 
213. 

War of 1812, a defeat for United 

States, 76, 86. 
War power of Congress, held by 



INDEX 



331 



Adams to justify emancipation of 
slaves, 261-265. 

Washington, George, appoints Ad- 
ams Minister to Holland, 19 ; 
urges him to remain in diplomacy, 
21 ; transfers him to Portugal, 
23 ; urges John Adams not to 
hesitate to promote him, 23, 24. 

Washington city, absence of church 
in, 30 ; described in 1815, 101, 
102 ; society in, 102, 103. 

Webster, Daniel, describes intrigu- 
ing in presidential election of 
1824, 165 ; teller in election of 
1824, 173; supports Adams in 
matter of Panama Congress, 190 ; 
desires appointment as Minister 
to England, 205 ; Adams said to 
have bargained for his support, 
209 ; accused by Adams of plot- 
ting to injure him, 296. 

Webster, Ezekiel, ascribes Adams's 
defeat to unpopularity of his 
manners, 204. 

Weights and measures, report of 
Adams upon, 126, 127 ; its char- 
acter and ability, 126, 127. 

Wellesley, Marquia of, on superi- 



ority of American diplomacy in 
treaty of Ghent, 96, 98. 

WTiig party, begins in defense of 
Adams's administration, 193 ; 
lacks personal interest in him, 
199 ; chilled by Adams's manner, 
202-204 ; Adams a member of, 
232, 233. 

Williams, Joseph L., of Tennessee, 
opposes Spanish treaty, 124. 

Williams, Lewis, proposes Adams 
for chairman of House, 293. 

Wise, Henry A., objects to recep- 
tion of anti-slavery petitions, 
258 ; attacks Adams for holding 
that Congress may interfere with 
slavery in the States, 263 ; again 
attacks him, 283 ; expresses his 
loathing, 284 ; taunted with mur- 
der by Adams, his bitter reply, 
285 ; compliments Adams on or- 
ganizing House, 294 ; later, when 
reprimanded for fighting, insults 
Adams, 294 ; castigated by Ad- 
ams for dueling and Southern 
views, 297, 300. 

Wirt, William, reappointed Attor- 
ney-General, 177. 



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